Halfling (editing in process)

Chapter Twenty-Four

It was tearing Payne apart from the inside to be away from her Aria. She had never physically felt pain before, not by any blade, whip, or any other weapon. But this was different, this wasn't physical, and she certainly took no pleasure in it. She had been hurting the girl from the beginning. She had debilitated her when they first met, had cut the slits for her wings, the things she had wanted to do to her back then... That was when the obsession had started, what had started as wanting to hear her scream and writhe in agony had turned into just wanting to study her, wanting to know what made her tick. And then that curiosity had turned into something more. She had warned Aria about the drider, and had torn into Azael when he had tried to hurt Aria then. She had held Aria when she sobbed, a low groan escaped Payne at the memory.

I never got her another necklace. She thought, pacing in her weapons room, wanting to rip her hair out.

She shut her eyes tightly and had to stop herself from looking in that damned mirror, which she had to replace because Lucien had taken her other one, again. Aria had found the hellhound she had left for her. She had watched as Marcus, as Aria had named it, had done his job and nearly tore Javen's head off for approaching her too closely. But when Aria began to cry... When she said her name...

She wrapped her arms around her middle, throwing a blade suddenly at the mirror on the wall, focused on Aria's face as she rode the dog like a horse. Her eyes were closed, her look troubled and shut off. The dagger hit it and the mirror shattered. She couldn't focus on Aria anymore. The girl was better off without her, no matter what the girl thought. She was never safe around Payne. Aria was lucky that she had had the whip, if Lucien had left her to her own devices she would have went at Aria with her nails, with her teeth... She could have torn the girl up from the inside out; she could have done so much... And that was what scared her. She would kill Lucien; she would destroy him piece by piece and when she was done she would put his head on a spike, and her fury would sound all throughout hell and make Lucifer himself shutter.

Well. It would if she could make a damn noise aside from a moan, garbled word or a whistle. It was annoying not having a tongue.

I hope that one day you will forgive me Aria. Maybe you'll find some demon or elf to settle down with, someone that will treat you well, someone that doesn't dream about whipping one another. We'll move on Aria... or at least I hope that you will. You will always be with me.

Payne started to gather up her weapons, blades mostly, hell bent on making Lucien pay.

"You really are stupid for coming back here; you think this wouldn't be the first place I would check when I saw you weren't with Aria?"

Payne spun in place, a blade longer than her forearm missing Lucien's neck by an inch. She snarled and produced another smaller blade from her side and went at him. He dodged her strikes as if they were nothing, and all through it he kept looking at her with that smug look in his eyes. She was screaming at him, but no words would leave her mouth.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I can't quite understand you." Lucien smirked and continued to dodge her as she struck at him in quick precise movements that, before he gained the power boost from Azael, would have torn him to shreds. He moved then, gripping her wrist mid swing and twisting it until her elbow snapped. She cried out and dropped to the floor instantly. He jerked her to her feet and pulled her to his chest, turning her around and grinding the bones together in her elbow. She could hear her teeth grinding together to try and resist the pleasure he flooded her body with.

"It's so easy with you, as it was with Aria. Though I think I like you better. I get to break your body, I get to hear your bones snap and grind together. It's no fun when you break someone's spirit. Sure, you can see it in their eyes, but there is just something about the sound of someone actually breaking." He chuckled in her ear. "Then again, seeing the horror in Aria's eyes when I touched her and she moaned was just as good. She was practically begging for my touch."

Payne's attack caught him off guard. She stamped his foot and spun, connecting her good elbow into the side of his head. She dropped and picked up her knife, snapping her elbow back into place and letting out a noise of fury as she attacked him once more. She managed to hit him a few times this time, slashing his arms and his sides, tearing at his suit that he carefully maintained.

"And she will beg for it again and again once I find her. It's not going to take me long to find her, do you think that that little hellhound is going to protect her? It was so easily to separate you two, she doesn't have you to protect her, and you don't have her to keep you level headed. She thinks she is some kind of Halfling bad-ass, but she is just a weak little girl, shunned by two worlds. Oh... But when I find her again... She is going to use both of those worlds to fuel me. I'll have her every day, maybe more than once. But until then, I'm going to start working on taking over Earth, sounds fun doesn't it? It turns out that I get much more power when they fight against it, and there are so many humans that are 'so faithful' to their husbands, or wanting to keep pure until they are married. Pity."

He moved and kicked her in the stomach, sending her flying. He was on her in an instant, pressing her face into the wall and holding her there.

"And you are coming with me, and I'll chain you to the wall in that bedroom, and you'll get to watch. You'll get to be there as she cries, and you'll get to know that you could to absolutely nothing while I take what is mine."

Payne struggled to get out of his grip, her heart hammering madly in her chest as she tried to get free. She groaned in horror as he pulled her from the wall, looking to the broken shards of the mirror.

Run Aria. For the love of Lucifer don't ever let him catch you.