"How would you know someone?" Saoirse asked, firing him a glare that she often found for him since he had lost her respect.
Aksel looked embarrassed, "Well I sent an assassin to kill Sirius 18 years ago, he said he's been in the void and returned; I can see if he will work for me again."
Saoirse burst out in anger, "What is wrong with you Aksel????!!!! Do you even hear yourself right now???!!!! You're going to just call up the demon who killed us? Do you think we are fools???!!!!—"
"—You're the one who killed us?" Sirius asked suddenly.
Aksel gulped. He covered his head thinking Sirius was going to pummel him, but he just broke out into hysterical laughter.
"You actually had us killed because you wanted to take Saoirse away from me?" He laughed some more, then he began rolling on the ground. "Hahaha."
"You broke my husband." Saoirse complained in disbelief. "Good going Aksel."
Then she got angry and cried out in dispair. "why can't you just quit taking from people all of the time?!"
Sirius finished laughing and calmed himself down, wiping a tear from his eye. "Hah…" he breathed a contented sigh. "All of this time, I was afraid I was killed by someone that I would have to face again someday, or for something I had done that I didn't remember, but it was just because you wanted my wife!" He chuckled. Then he patted Aksel on the back. "I think it's a great idea to introduce us to this demon. I am the son of Hel I'm sure I can take him this time."
Then he got up and wrapped his arm around Aksel's shoulder. "Man, now I know what Saoirse saw in you, you're a sucker for tricks, but you have connections and you know how to reach your goals. I mean, if we were the Alpha and the Luna of your hometown and you managed to get us killed and you got away with it, man, and you ended up with my wife just like you wanted; Aksel, I think that you just gained a little bit of respect from me."
Aksel was shocked. "You mean it?"
"Yeah, Aksel you're alright."
Saoirse rolled her eyes. "He didn't get with me." She said.
"That's a real bummer about your car Sirius. It was really nice. I thought you were a good driver."
Sirius scratched the back of his head, "Yeah well, a deer jumped in front of the car and I couldn't stop and I don't like killing animals unless it's to eat them. I don't know why it's just my nature I guess. He downplayed the crash, eyeing Aksel to see if he knew anything."
"Great, now I'm friends with a vegan vampire." Aksel said shaking his head, seeming to not know anything.
Sirius folded his arms. "Ok let's speak with this beast."
—————-
The moment Sirius uttered the words, "Let's speak with this beast," an eerie stillness settled over Aksel.
As if caught by surprise, like the calm before a devastating storm, without warning, Aksel—who had been composed mere moments ago—threw his head back and erupted into a maniacal, bone-chilling laughter.
"Hahahahaha!" a new power coursed through his veins. "I was waiting for him to ask me to do something again! Oh but of course I will."
His laughter echoed like the cries of the damned. It was thunderous and unhinged and rippled through the very fabric of the air around him.
While he laughed his arms spread wide, trembling with unnatural energy, his fingers outstretched as if he were embracing the chaos he had become.
His body embraced the demon he had inside of him, possessing him completely.
As Sirius watched, he clenched his fists, opened them slowly, and savored the raw, unbridled power of electricity that began to build. He burned his hands like spiderwebs but he seemed to enjoy it like a predator.
It was as though the darkness within him had been fully unleashed, and Aksel was basking in the glory of its ascension. Every flick of his fingers, every shift of his posture, screamed dominance, as if the very world had bent to his will.
Saoirse wanted to stop him; his beast was hurting him and try as she might to hate him she couldn't wish ill on anyone as vulnerable as he could sometimes be—unless it was her to unleash the ill on him.
Then she was open to it with open arms.
"Luz…" she plead for his mercy worriedly.
His gaze snapped toward her with glee. Mistaking her plea as fear.
But it was not merely a name that had been spoken—it was a summoning.
The air around him grew heavier, crackling with dark power. His once-human aura twisted into something monstrous, unholy, and untamed.
Far more ancient. Far more terrifying. And now it's hunger became palpable and suffocating.
His hands rose up with the mere mention of his name and a bolt of electricity shot towards Saoirse, missing her by mere millimeters on purpose. Now he was toying with his prey.
Suddenly his body jolted with electricity and a beast leapt out from inside of him, transforming him in a grotesque manner and Aksel for a moment screamed in pain.
Horror etched on his face and then he sunk down into the ground into his very own shadow.
————
BAM!!!!
He tried to electrocute Sirius from below, burning his foot which was unprotected.
"Aaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!" He screamed in alarm as he was struck and the bolt reverberated through him and shot up into the air.
Saoirse let out a scream; her foot being burned through the bond.
Then instinctively, she hurled herself away from her shadow just as a bolt aimed for her.
Her body moved with desperate precision. She leapt into the air and into a backward flip. A trail of jagged ice erupted from her feet, and propelled her, the frozen vapors crackling and glistening like shards of frozen air.
Then landed with a careful skid on the icy surface she had made, sliding backward with controlled grace until her momentum brought her into a crouch, her palms barely touching the ice to steady herself.
For a moment, she froze in that primal stance, her breath misting in the air. Then, with a deliberate, measured motion, Saoirse rose to her feet, her eyes blazing with determination.
In an instant ice spiraled around her hands, forming into a gleaming, razor-sharp sword that shimmered with lethal intent.
The hilt wrapped around her hand and gleamed with beautiful detail despite the need for sudden thought.
Sirius could tell that this weapon of hers was used often.
She was prepared to battle this beast even in her condition, but he wasn't about to let that happen.
Determination filled his soul. He withdrew Odin's sword from his hilt. The beautiful blade gleamed as if it was made for him instead.
Then he stood between the beast and her.
From the corner of his eye a bit of blood dripped from Saoirse's mouth and she winced and held her side.
This made the Luz smile, "Let the witch burn."
Then Luz finished his transformation into a panther -like beast. His jaws able to open into three sections and two large fangs elongated like tusks from his canines.
"Where's my welcome, Taz!?" He shrieked, his beast words only understandable by Sirius who came from the same realm.
Then the beast walked forward and pressed Sirius into the ice. His limp body dissatisfied the beast "come on this is too easy, just like last time." He complained.
"Get away from him." Saoirse spat. She wiped her blood away from her mouth, though more was coming and she vomited.
"It has begun." The beast cackled, "you'd better lie down, you'll just burn faster." He said, "leave this to the boys."
She narrowed her eyes as the panther made to step on Sirius and kill him as he had done before, but suddenly saoirse was there and she breathed ice at him, letting out a scream in fear and burning him with cold. Her ice encased him in a ten foot layer, his body frozen midstep.
He cried out in anger. Sirius's eyes snapped open, air filling his lungs and his red eyes burning with intensity as a surge of power coursed through him, healing his broken ribs.
A deafening crack split the air as four immense wings burst from his back—part of them as dark as the void, the other part gleaming a pristine white, each feather outlined with veins of molten gold that shimmered and emitted light.
This was unlike any transformation he had ever done before, an evolution of his strength that shook the ground beneath him.
His arms moved with purpose, cradling his wife securely as they ascended into the air, his wings slicing through the space around them with controlled, commanding power.
With a powerful sweep of his wings, he propelled himself upward, the sheer force creating a gust that rippled outward like a storm.
The black and white feathers contrasted sharply, yet harmoniously, with the golden light that trailed in their wake, a radiant display of defiance and strength.
He declared he was far from finished.
When Sirius lay on the frozen ground, his body crushed between the biting cold of the ice and the weight of the panther's heavy foot. The rough pads dug into him like sandpaper, the pressure stealing his breath. Time was slipping away.
His previous death flashed before his eyes. It was an odd thing to have happen, but he imagined it was because of the similarity between then and now: