Half-Bloods R • 2 : Growing Shadows

C • 3 : Forest of Wind, River of Petals

"Chris, no!" Demi shouted, wildly mashing the buttons of the controller, she snapped her head toward the cyborg, "Damn it, that was my shovel!"

"You snooze, you lose," he snarkily grinned, as his character on the TV screen ran away.

The group sat around the Chimera House's living room. Demi and Christopher sat on the main couch, Elizabeth sat on the love seat, and Anna sat on the floor next to Demi with a bluish glass coffee table in front of her.

Anna twirled a small fleck of unmelting ice between the fingers of her left as she quietly read a book with crinkly, yellowed pages. She held the page that her eyes rested upon in her right hand. Her hair had been growing wild like weeds recently, prompting Demi to cut and style it into a choppy bob. Even Christopher had added to her makeover, ordering sleek mechanical arms and smaller horns to replace the bulky ones that had been implanted on her by the Order. Thinking about the past few days, even the past couple of weeks, Anna couldn't help but smile.

She felt a sudden, cold prick at the back of her neck.

Later, Nephilim, right now we're reading.

Demi's phone began playing a bright, whistling melody that she'd composed herself, reminding them of the time, four o'clock.

"Hey Anna, wanna play for a bit?" Demi asked, shaking the PlayStation seven controller.

Anna tilted her head back, "Nah, I'm good," she smiled, trying to hide the annoyance that Nephilim was sparking in her.

Christopher leaned forward and grinned, he spoke in an overly sweetened voice, as if talking to a toddler, "You sure? It could be fun!"

Cold lashed at her spine, she turned back to her book and groaned, "I'll pass."

Demi stepped out of the room and began working on random small chores around the house while Christopher continued playing video games in silence. Elizabeth, who'd been on her phone the whole time with a pile of chocolates and chocolate wrappers on her belly, would occasionally swipe her thumb across her phone. Anna turned the page, letting herself be absorbed into the story.

"Hey Anna, whatcha reading?" Elizabeth asked, leaning the upper half of her body off the couch.

"Animal Farm, it's from the same author as 1984," she didn't even bat an eye as she continued reading.

"Man, the dude made some weird titles," Elizabeth groaned, pulling herself up.

Anna laughed, "I guess."

She turned the page, letting the paper linger on her thumb for a moment before it slipped away. A cold frost burned at the back of her neck, a feeling- a statement that she ignored. She rubbed her neck, wincing at the cold sting of metal, or maybe at the metal touching the frost that had been built on her neck.

"Hey," Christopher's metal hand fell onto her shoulder, frost immediately formed beneath his hand, beneath the sleeve of her shirt, "You okay?"

She looked back at him, his greenish eyes softened, and head tilted. Another lash of cold struck her.

"Yeah, Nephilim's just being a pest," she said, suddenly becoming aware of the extra raspy state of her voice, she cleared her throat, "I'm fine."

Christopher removed his hand, revealing a thin layer of ice on his mechanical hand, their eyes went wide. A cold traveled down Anna's spine, and she quickly pulled up the back of her shirt, revealing a thick coating of unmelting ice latched onto her back, swirls and patterns etched into the frost. She dropped her shirt as the cold finally settled into her body, unable to resist its bite, she fell to her side, shivering.