The Wolves of Cain

Power Hungry

Date: 3-1-17

Chapter 38: Power Hungry

Adrian runs so fast that the trees blur together and he's slamming into vine girl in an instant, throwing her harshly to the ground.

Adrian hears the air getting knocked out of vine girl as she hits the ground hard.

He's breathing heavily in rage as Monique suddenly jumps out of the shadows in a fighting stance. "Adrian?" She says in surprise.

Adrian spins and growls viciously at Monique, who doesn't even flinch. "You shouldn't have followed me. I told you not to!" Adrian is absolutely furious with his younger sister.

"Oh, you mean that note you left for me to find when I got back from work?" Monique says with a sneer.

"Obviously I didn't listen. Sorry if I worry about you and want to make sure you have some backup!" Monique replies fiercely, refusing to back down when she knows she's right.

"There wasn't even supposed to be any danger until-" Adrian stops when Monique gasps.

Adrian looks down to see fresh blood pouring from his chest. His body is so full of adrenaline at the moment that he doesn't even feel the pain that should be there.

The vine that stabbed through him must've hit a major organ. Adrian rips the vine in half, then ignores the blood flow that's starting to slow down. It's healing.

Monique hardens her expression, reaching into the pocket of her leather jacket and pulling out a knife around the size of her forearm. Adrian doesn't even blink at that. Monique is always carrying around weapons, and with very good reason. You never know who could be lying in wait to attack you.

And without Monique's runes she would have no supernatural abilities. Those runes fade after awhile, so if she was caught with none on her, she could get killed. Of course, Monique still has her amazing fighting skills. She's also good with gymnastics, which helps her be more graceful while fighting.

Adrian suddenly sees vine girl standing out of reach behind Monique. Before he can warn her, Monique spins and slashes a vine that was coming right at her. It's like she has eyes in the back of her head. Don't worry, that's not a Shadowhunter thing.

Vine girl flinches but doesn't stop her advances. This reminds Adrian that killing her vines hurts her. He'll have to use that later.

Adrian's proud of his sister for being able to hold her own in a fight. She'd be an unnecessary nuisance otherwise.

Since vine girl is distracted, Adrian goes around her to attack. Just as he's about to jump out from behind a tree to incapacitate vine girl, Adrian feels something wrap around his middle.

Adrian tries to pull at the vines encasing him, but they wrap around his hands too. They squeeze too tight and snap a bone in Adrian's wrist, but he's absolutely silent to keep Monique from trying to save him. That would only distract her.

The vines are now crawling up Adrian's neck as they multiply. When they're close enough, Adrian lets out his fangs and bites into the vines.

Adrian hears a cry of surprise as he keeps ripping into the vines with his sharpened teeth.

"Stop it!" Vine girl shrills as loud as she can at Adrian.

The vines then move away from his mouth and start stabbing him in the chest. Adrian flexes his arms so the muscles bulge and he's able to break free.

With a roar of rage and a flash of fiery red eyes, Adrian rushes vine girl where she's battling Monique.

Monique stops and backs away when she sees Adrian holding vine girl up by her neck.

"That's it! One wrong move and you're dead!" Adrian yells in vine girl's face, not caring that Ivie is just underneath the surface.

Monique sees vine girl's mouth inching upwards in a half smile, but it drops away when Adrian speaks again.

Adrian's voice is low with anger. "And if you think you can have your play toys stab me again, think again! It doesn't matter where you hit me, I'll rip your throat out."

Monique knows this is bad because she's only seen Adrian this mad one time. That was the day someone was stupid enough to try and poison him to get his job position. Adrian didn't even like that job but he was furious that someone tried to murder him. If Adrian was human he would've been dead.

In the end Adrian killed the guy and made it look like an accident. He wanted to put the body somewhere awful to further disrespect the dead guy, but Monique convinced him otherwise. And even if it doesn't sound true, Monique knows that Adrian has changed since then.

So Adrian won't kill vine girl/Ivie. But vine girl definitely thinks he will so she doesn't attack Adrian.

Adrian's fingers are curled around vine girl's neck. As Monique watches, Adrian tightens his hold. Now Monique is getting a little worried.

"You're going to answer my questions." Adrian practically growls at vine girl. She tries to nod her head, but it's hard since she's up in the air. The fear in her neon eyes is apparent.

"Now how did you possess this body?" Adrian asks fiercely. He puts her back on the ground but doesn't release her so the threat is imminent.

Monique notices that Adrian isn't using Ivie's name. She understands the strategy, and it's a good one. Adrian's making sure to not make vine girl think he cares more about this then he really does.

Adrian looses his hold on her neck enough so she can speak. "A bug." She gasps out.

"I need more than that." Adrian growls out, flashing his red eyes to try to scare her more.

"A green leaf bug and the little magic I had left let me get this body." Vine girl admits. So Adrian was right. They're dealing with a possession.

"How do we reverse it?" Adrian asks sternly.

"You can't." Vine girl says on a choked laugh.

Adrian shakes her before replying. "You're lying. Tell me how to fix this!"

Monique stands out of the way, letting all of this happen. It'll help Ivie in the long run.

"You can't do it. Only SHE can!" Vine girl says vaguely but with a hint of glee. "And she doesn't want to do that." Vine girl smirks, even though she could be killed any moment.

"She?" Adrian questions with barely concealed rage behind his words.

"She! The other girl in this body." Vine girl sounds disgusted that she has to share.

Monique answers in a hushed tone. "Ivie."

Adrian hears and whips his head towards Monique, dropping vine girl to the ground.

Monique thinks that over, noting vine girl's smug grin. Monique talked with Ivie in the kitchen today about this. Ivie likes how she's changed. Becoming dangerous doesn't matter to Ivie when she's suddenly confident. Ivie doesn't even care that she could be hurting people at night. She'll want to keep that power.

Monique sighs in frustration as she realizes why this will be so difficult. Ivie wants to stay the way she is. Monique shares a look with Adrian just then.

They're both thinking the same thing. This is going to be much harder than they expected.