Blackhearted

Choice

Later days

"Obey me," Melinoe commanded.

The Nightmare shook its head and snorted, its golden eyes briefly flickering crimson.

"Obey me," the dearg-due demanded, her blood-colored gaze searing into the creature's.

The Nightmare whinnied, breaking away from her hypnosis and dissolving into the shadows. Melinoe hissed in frustration, her nails biting into her palms.

"It's not gonna happen, lass," Sean remarked, biting into an apple and wiping his mouth on his sleeve. "That thing's under rule of the Boogeyman. You can't-"

"Don't tell me what I can and can't do, gancanagh. I nearly had it."

"Close but no cigar, darling. Luring some poor sucker into a dark alley is one thing- taming a monster is another beast entirely."

Melinoe scoffed and snapped her fingers. A tiny dragon crawled up onto her shoulder, its eyes glowing like embers against its obsidian scales, and Sean cried out. "Mel-!"

"See something, gancanagh?"

He pointed to the creature reclining by her neck. "There's a basilisk on your shoulder!"

"Indeed. Would you like to pet him?"

Sean tensed. "Mel, basilisks can turn people to stone. You know about gorgons? It's like that, except you can't sweet-talk a basilisk into leaving you alone."

Melinoe smirked and stroked the wyrm with two fingers. It pushed up into her touch, a rumbling sound emanating from its throat. "I don't know, Seany- this one is fairly receptive to flattery. Aren't you, my little cockatrice?" she cooed, twining its serpentine neck between her fingers.

The basilisk eyed Sean warily, and the gancanagh realized its red ember eyes were the exact same shade as the dearg-due's.

"You can control that thing?" he asked disbelievingly.

"But apparently not a horse with a punny name. Odd, isn't it?"

Sean shook his head, brushing his bangs out of his face. "Melinoe, this isn't normal. Dearg-dues are charmers, but they can't just bring demons under their control at the drop of a hat."

"Well, gashadokuros aren't usually brought under the spell of a gancanagh's touch, are they?"

"That's because no gancanagh's ever been stupid enough to actually try to charm a gashadokuro. I didn't mean to get that thing addicted to me."

"Don't you think it's strange it hasn't bitten your head off yet? It's had ample opportunity to."

Sean waved his hands in a cutting motion. "That's not the same as this, Mel. There's a world of difference between crossing magics that ought not be mixed and things that flat-out shouldn't be possible. What happened to me was an accident- what you're doing, it's, it's unnatural."

Melinoe rolled her scarlet eyes. "Please. I'm an undead drinker of blood, Seany- nothing about me is natural."

Sean crossed his arms. "I'm not scolding you, Mel, I just- look, I'm not pretending to know everything about our world. There are a lot of things I've yet to learn, same as you, but...this gives me a bad feeling. Just...be careful, yeah?"

The dearg-due laughed and kissed the top of the basilisk's head. "Relax. I'm not going to pull a PItch and raise a dark army to take over the world, if that's what you're worried about."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Latest days

Melinoe tilted Jack's chin up so her blood-red eyes were looking directly into his ice-blue ones.