The dart board sat in the open area where anyone passing by could see them. It was a mere two feet wide and hung on an empty wall—out of the way from any tables and the bar. That was a good thing considering Levi didn't strike Cassius as the type to be able to tie his own shoes without tripping over them. Also, Rexton was getting to the point of drunk that was embarrassing.
In the middle of it, Cassius was at a loss as to what he was supposed to do with the four idiots he'd been forced to spend time with.
He hung to the back as much as he could. It wasn't like he was able to go anywhere. His coloring, the leash on his neck, and insignia on his uniform jacket would give him away in a split second.
Kera was the first victim to be attacked with insistent begging to play. She took it in stride to Cassius's surprise. He'd expected her to complain about it in a offhand comment, but instead of biting back, she swallowed her pride. Perhaps it was because Rexton was her boss and it would have been a little awkward come morning if she disobeyed an order.
Well, if being told to play darts could be classified as an official order.
Anyway, Cassius was happy to observe as this quite disfunction SWARM tried their hand at drunken darts. It was the most idiotic thing he'd seen in his life, but he was going to enjoy this sliver of time. It wasn't going to last long. Before he knew it, he was going to be back in chains and being used as a sniffing dog for Rexton's personal use.
Personal use wasn't quite it, yet, it wasn't that far off. Cassius could feel that something was going on with the mission, Rexton, and President Maxem. He didn't have the slightest clue as to what any of it meant.
A smile had spread over his face as he watched Kera throw a dart. She was just one sliver of an inch away from bullseye. Her upper lip twitched.
"Next?" She turned around and placed her hands on her hips.
Rexton raised his glass at Mattius. Cassius noticed how Rexton pointedly passed over him. He thought back to the drinking game—whatever it was—and mulled over what had happened. They were dancing around each other now. The alcohol in Rexton must be pretty damn strong for him to be stepping on toes like this.
More like stepping on a couple of lines. Crossing them to be more specific.
Mattius wasn't quick to grab the next dart. He took his time getting ready, looking across the distance at the board, as if he was measuring the distance.
Rexton downed the glass. Cassius was starting to have trouble keeping up with how many drinks he'd put away. Was this his fourth? Or fifth?
His smile started to fall. He was no longer thinking this was funny. He was worried.
Mattius stepped up to the invisible plate. As he raised his hand, Cassius got the chill again. The shiver ran down the back of his neck, sliding down his spine.
He slowly turned his head, glancing around the room. There was someone or something here. He could feel it in the air now. It was hard to trace when he wasn't looking for it, but now that he was searching for it, he felt the signs of a presence. Magic. It was a different form. Different from Mekiah and Exterus alike.
It took him a moment to place where he'd felt the same sense from. It was the demon and the girl. They both had magic that felt similar.
Mattius threw the dart. It missed the bull's eye by a centimeter.
Cassius looked back to the group. Rexton was looking at him. The drink that had been in his hand was gone. He was leaning against the wall, hands in his pockets. He gave a nod to the back room.
Cassius didn't know what was going on, but this was a chance to tell Rexton about the presence. He didn't want to risk going to the Veil with all these people around them. And he also didn't like that Rexton was drunk at a time like this. They were military. Even when they were "off-duty", they were still in danger of an attack.
He followed Rexton to the back room. He didn't notice if the rest of the group noticed that they had left together. He was just focused on Rexton.
The air was almost different in the back room as well. He let his magic dip out, tasting in a way that only magic could do, and it was then that he could feel the changes happening in the moment. He felt Rexton slowly losing his hold on himself. His magic was pouring out like a turned faucet. Cassius rigidly continued to walk. He glanced around as if he was waiting for a shadow to move or a demon to pop out.
It was ridiculous. He shouldn't have been so high strung and Rexton shouldn't have been fucking drunk. He was an idiot for doing it. And for what? What was he trying to prove?
Why was he making it seem like he was doing it for Cassius's reaction alone?
There was no one in the back. It was a surprise given the fact that there were so many people in the bar to begin with. He didn't understand how anyone would want to stay out there listening to the racket. There was also the close proximity. Cassius hated when others touched him. It made his skin crawl. Being handled all the time was bad enough. He wasn't going to choose to sit through it if he didn't have to.
Rexton rushed to one of the dark empty corners of the room. Confused, Cassius merely watched as Rexton turned to face him. His eyes were red and bloodshot. He looked like he was on the verge of passing out.
There was a manic look in his eyes. He wasn't all there. And Cassius just didn't understand why he intentionally did this to himself.
He slowly walked forward. He stopped a foot away. He didn't let himself get any closer. He wasn't scared, but he still had no idea what Rexton was up to.
Rexton sway on his feet.
Before Cassius could reaction, Rexton grabbed the front of his jacket and yanked him forward.
"It's here, isn't it?"
Cassius had said that he wasn't afraid. That was now untrue. The tremor in Rexton's voice not only meant that he could feel the demon, but it also meant that he knew and felt just how strong it was.
And for a Remu to feel the magic of a demon through the Veil meant a whole lot more trouble for them all.
Cassius pushed him away.
"Listen to me. Are you listening?"
Rexton narrowed his eyes.
"Don't be fucking obnoxious."
Cassius rolled his eyes.
"Calm down. Can you even walk in a straight line?"
Rexton pushed away from the wall. He spread his arms out and tried to walk, one heel touching the tip of the other.
He stumbled.
Cassius was by his side in a second. He didn't have to think, he just did it. He put his arm around Rexton's waist and pulled him to his side. It was the wrong thing to do. This wasn't just anyone he was talking about. This was the man that had ruined everything. In his eyes, this made Rexton just as bad as Iza and Felix. He should have let him hit the floor and left it at that.
But as much as he hated Rexton, he wasn't going to let him die because he'd been dumber enough to get drunk when they were still hunting down a powerful demon.
He didn't know how he would feel if anyone died because of him. He was a Tracker, not an Exterminator.
It wasn't like the thought hadn't crossed his mind. Murder was always there, lurking like a parasite looking for a meal to feed on. He'd been strong enough so far to ignore that needy tug. Emotion or the back of it was always the root cause for murder to happen.
Cassius didn't want it to win the silent game. It would be so much easier if he gave in and forgot about hypothetical winning. So much easier.
But the easier way wasn't always going to be a choice. Killing couldn't always solve a problem that lived outside a human body.
They were closer to each other than they had ever been. The warmth of Rexton's body made it harder to think. Rexton placed his hands on Cassius's chest. It was much more obvious who was the taller out of the two when they were standing like this.
He held his breath. He was sure now that Rexton had slipped past the point of being rational.
Cassius grabbed both his wrists. He held them there and tried to swallow the lump in his throat. He could feel Rexton's heartbeat under the pads of his fingers. There was a glaze over Rexton's eyes that made Cassius think that he wasn't completely there.
But he was proven wrong when Rexton pushed him against the wall.
Cassius took in a sharp tick of breath when his back hit the wall. He hissed and glared up at Rexton.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"I have to tell you something."
"You couldn't have told me when you were sober?" It was a surprise to him when he didn't have the guts to push back against Rexton.
While he was in this state it wouldn't have taken much to over power him.
Rexton shook his head. "Didn't mean to."
Cassius furrowed his brows. "What do you mean?"
Rexton slowly blinked. He was staring at Cassius with such an intense expression that it made him uncomfortable.
"I think someone is trying to get me."
The walls of the veil opened at that precise moment. Cassius and Rexton were sucked in, minds almost melding together because they were not prepared for it.
Cassius's neck burned where the demon had bit him. He cried out in pain, falling to his knees.
"Cassius?" Rexton fell beside him. He grabbed Cassius's face, turning his watery eyes to face him.
The Veil was an unforgiving place. It ate people from the inside out, leaving the minds of the unfortunate empty husks. That was what it did to people that didn't have magic or had low levels of it. It took everything from them because they had no ability to protect themselves from the onslaught that was the Veil.
So when Cassius said he was surprised to find that Rexton wasn't at all harmed by the Veil it really fucking meant he was surprised.
Surprised wasn't even the start of it. He was knocked on his fucking ass and he didn't have the time to think about it before he was assaulted by a blast of energy to the back.
Cassius fell to his knees. He groaned as the magic ate away his flesh. The searing burns warned him to not touch. That would only make things worse. He grabbed his unharmed shoulder instead.
Rexton was on his feet, though he wasn't stable by the look of it.
"Stop! Rexton!" Cassius threw himself toward Rexton, but it was too late.
Rexton faced the demon. Cassius couldn't see a damn thing. The demon could have been right in front of him and he wouldn't have known better.
Rexton wasn't scared. His magic was bubbling up. It was so clear that Cassius could taste it. He could feel it and it felt just as it had when they had first met. He grasped out with his magic. They met in the middle. Their magic bloomed together so fast that Cassius was almost blown away by it.
Rexton wasn't hindered by the new development. He didn't push Cassius's magic away. He didn't even flinch. He accepted it like it was the normal thing to do.
Something fluttered in Cassius's chest. He couldn't tell if it was from the new connection or if it was something else.
Rexton conjured up a ball of energy. He took from his own magic and Cassius's. He got into a battle stance. And he was unharmed. He was in the fucking Veil and he wasn't brain dead. It was unbelievable and terrifying.
Cassius held his breath. He waited for the moment when Rexton would let the ball of energy go. He could feel the magic tightening in his chest and he could only imagine that it was doing the same inside of Rexton's.
But the release never came. The moment hung in the air and the burn in Cassius's back was getting worse. The magic that touched his skin was still there. It was eating him and it wasn't stopping. He cried out, falling to his hands and knees. It was too much already. There was nothing he could do because he couldn't think straight. The pain was all he could focus on. All around him, he could feel Rexton and then the demon. Their magic was consuming him and he lost his in the vast sea of everything else.
"Rexton!" His voice didn't sound like his own. He looked up.
He saw them. The demon. Or what he had thought was the demon. It was another surprise to not see the demon that had bit him, but actually the Mekiah that he'd been hunting the day of the attack.
They stood in front of them both. They weren't in a stance. They didn't even have a weapon in their hands—magic or not. They just stood, watching Rexton like they had been expecting this all along.
And maybe it was the look in their eyes that made Cassius's gut clench. The look in their eyes made him think of an Exteru and not a Mekiah. Their blank stare was focused solely on Rexton, but Cassius could feel it from where he was, not too far from Rexton's side.
All he knew was that this wasn't at all what he'd expected when they had gone out.
Rexton shot out a blast of lightning. It pulled from both of their combined magic. The pull caused the pain in his back to worsen. He yelled out. Rexton looked back at them.
The Mekiah took the opening. They ran toward them. As they drew near they shot out metal spikes.
The scream didn't leave Cassius's mouth. It was too late.
Rexton was too late to dodge. The spikes were faster than him and with his abilities dampened by alcohol, Cassius wasn't sure if Rexton would have stood a chance. He turned to the side at the last minute. He may have been looking at Cassius, but Cassius was too busy looking at the person that would be the one to take Rexton's life.
He thought it would happen differently. He thought he would be the one faced with the choice as to whether he should pull the plug on Rexton's existence. Everything was boiled down to this one moment. For just a brief second, his entire life was summed into a decimal of time. He felt meaningless. This whole thing felt meaningless.
The spikes hit Rexton in the side. In a flash, he shot out another blast toward the Mekiah. It was an off shot that barely skimmed by the Mekiah. Rexton fell down before Cassius. Their eyes met.
Rexton mouthed something to him. Cassius saw his lips moving, but he had no clue what the hell he was going on about. Cassius shook his head. Rexton ignored it, rolling over. He grabbed Cassius's hand and yanked him. Cassius rolled almost completely on top of Rexton. It was no time to be thinking about things like how Cassius's crotch was right up against Rexton's hip. Thankfully the pain in his back worsened. Rexton put his hand on Cassius's back, his fingers sinking into the now charred flesh.
The Mekiah moved toward them. It was a lifeless thing that made Cassius's blood run cold. It was quick on its feet and it was coming right for them.
Cassius clutched onto Rexton with his free hand. Rexton threw up a shield, but it wasn't going to hold. It was flickering, already fading.
Rexton's hand tightened on his.
This was it. This was how he was going to die.
The Mekiah lifted its hand. A surge of magic built up in their palm. It was getting larger and larger.
And then it shot at them.
But it never hit.
The shot sounded like it was miles away. And it took a second for Cassius to come out of his stupor. The magic had flipped on its head. What he felt now was the place that he ran to when he didn't feel at all safe, when he was lonely, and when he was close to just ending it all.
The Third Eye.
His jaw went slack. Rexton held firmly to his hand, but he still backed away with a look of hesitance. His mouth opened and closed. Cassius could just tell by the look on his face that he hadn't meant to do this. Or rather, he hadn't planned to.
"I—" That was as far as he got into his explanation before the Third Eye opened up once more.
Even with the extreme pain in his back, Cassius left to his feet. He pulled Rexton along with them. There was a new found power within him. It was from the rush of everything. It was the hopelessness and the surprise that was flooding his body with one more fight to dish out. His mind was reeling from the fact that Rexton had pulled them into the fucking Third Eye.
He didn't know what he was going to do and he didn't know where he was going inside the Third Eye. He was calling out to it, pushing his thoughts and memories at it in hopes that it would take the bait and pull them in further.
The place that he always thought was his safe haven was not. Rexton could access it and apparently so could the Mekiah that was hunting them down.
It was a strange turn of events when it was usually him that was doing the hunting. He hated it.
He halted to catch breath. The Mekiah was a little behind them. If they didn't do something fast then that Mekiah was going to kill them. It wasn't an overreaction. The magic coursing through them was unbelievable.
"Got any idea?"
Cassius panted as he gave Rexton an exhausted look. "Do you think we'd still be standing here if I did?"
Rexton shrugged. "Guess that's good that I do."
"I think I like you better when you're sober and an asshole."
A filthy grin spread across his face. "You like me?"
Cassius's brows sprung up so fast that he gave himself a headache. He almost didn't believe what he was seeing. Rexton stepped closer and Cassius was still shocked that he didn't back away. He thought vaguely that Rexton didn't know what he was saying either. He was drunk.
"You're drunk." That was all that he could manage to get out. His mouth was dry and all the things that he should be saying were stuck in the back of his throat.
He was saved when the Mekiah appeared behind Rexton.
Cassius didn't have to think. He threw his arms around Rexton, hugging him tightly to his chest. His heart was racing. He could feel their magic intertwining so tightly that he couldn't breathe. He felt something lock inside of him as he made eye contact with the Mekiah. It was a sense of being complete.
The Third Eye finally caught onto his thoughts. It snatched onto him and inadvertly onto Rexton as well. They both screamed as the Third Eye ripped them through the folds of information and away from the Mekiah.
They landed back at the bar, just a few feet away from where they had been pulled into the Veil. He didn't let go of Rexton. He didn't even notice Rexton was holding him just as tight until they were safe. But safe was a tricky word. Rexton might be safe, but Cassius was bouncing back and forth between danger.
"What the hell was that?"
Standing around the two was the rest of their SWARM. Kera grabbed Cassius and yanked him away from Rexton.
"Hey!" Cassius pushed her away, but Levi came in to help her. "I didn't do anything!"
They put him back into his chains.
"Kera, Levi, get your hands off him."
Kera whirled to face Rexton. "He put you in harms way."
Rexton shook his head. "The only one at fault is the one who attacked us. Release him. Now."
With a grumbled noise, Kera unlocked the chains. Levi stepped back, not looking so sure about who he was supposed to side with.
And there was Mattias who was watching the whole ordeal like it was a show for his entertainment.
Cassius gave Rexton a puzzled look. It had to be the alcohol. Or Rexton had something planned because there was no way that he was doing this out of kindness.
When Rexton stepped forward, it was Cassius that felt like he had all the power. It was strange. He'd always felt powerless in a sense, even when he knew he could use his power to hurt someone. There was always the looming fact that the world was against him. Society was against him because of history.
Their eyes met. Cassius couldn't look away from those brown eyes. They called to him in a way that felt like home. Home had never been a place that existed for him, but for some reason, he thought that he could find it now. It didn't make sense, but he was done trying to make sense in a world that was chaotic as this one.
Rexton gave him a slight nod. It was small, yet it was a riptide compared to all the recognition he'd gotten in the past.
He thought for a moment that things were changing. Though, when he looked at the rest of his new SWARM, he was ashamed at himself. He was trying to pretend life was getting better, but in reality, it was the same.
A different owner, but still the animal.