“Ignis.” muttered Marvin, the lighter’s flame coming to life in response to his words. Last time he had used the spell it was in the heat of battle, and he couldn’t fully appreciate its wonder. Or feel its cost.

He felt his free hand tremble, and suddenly Marly’s face was in front of him. Close, like when she kissed him not three hours ago. Except this time he could see disgust in her face. The anger in her eyes.

Suddenly Adam was staring down at him. Jacob and Trevon stood next to him. They were saying something he couldn’t make out, but he knew it wasn’t good. He was stupid to think that they’d accept him.

Closing his eyes he took a deep breath. He’d learned how to deal with these things. This wasn’t real. Based on his actual fears and insecurities, yes. But not how things were.

His hand stopped trembling. The flame became stronger.

“Well done Marvin.” congratulated Kara, breaking the dark haired teen out of his thoughts. “And here I thought you suggested this just to get out of going to the History Center.”

“Well, I have been more than enough times.” sheepishly replied Marvin, willing the flame to go out.

Kara chuckled in response. “Well, this room doesn’t belong to us so I can’t exactly have the progress check I’d like. Don’t want to ruin anything.” she smirked at him while gesturing around said room, the same one they had regrouped in.

Memories of the last ‘progress check’ from a few months ago were still in Marvin’s mind, and he could faintly feel the pain in his ribs from it. “I see you’ve taken quite a liking to the Ignis spell, so you’ll be using it, alongside the other elemental spells thrice a day. You need to get used to them, and get rid of the need to draw circles.”

“Yes ma’am.” saluted Marvin semi-jokingly, although the use of the word ‘ma’am’ earned him a glare from his mentor.

“Today I’m going to show you Multi.” declared Kara.

“Multi?” wondered Marvin. Maria had used that, hadn’t she? “Um, the-the sorceress we faced used that I think.”

“That doesn’t surprise me.” sighed Kara. “Based on the name and description you went against Maria Rockwell. She has three years as a professional, but she’s a dangerous opponent, having been trained to use magic since she was a child. Beware of her” she explained, her tone betraying no small amounts of worry at the mention of the woman.

“She didn’t seem that dangerous when we faced her.” admitted Marvin bashfully. He didn’t like to underestimate people, but that was how he saw it. Sure, one on one he didn’t think he-or any of his teammates-could have taken her, but if she were as powerful as Kara had made her sound she probably could have taken them.

“You have a lot to learn Marvin.” responded Kara sagely. “I told you before, the combat applications are only a small part of what a sorcerer does. And someone like her, who has been training for her entire life, who knows what she has in store for you. Plus, she and Amdis, they aren’t the only enemies on the horizon.”

“You’ve said that before. What do you mean?”

Kara smiled sadly. “I don’t think I’m at liberty to discuss it. Classified information and all that. But it’s something big. And we all need to be ready for it.”

Swallowing thickly, Marvin nodded. He had a feeling that training was about to get much more intense. Still, whatever was coming was much worse. Remembering the day his life was changed forever, he made a silent promise to himself that he’d help wherever he could so that something like that never happened again.

-

Training with Kara ended up taking nearly three hours, meaning Marvin didn’t have enough time to properly relax himself. Instead, he went straight from training to exploring the city of Atlanta with his school. He spent that time mostly hanging around Adam and his group, and watching his schoolmates act like Atlanta was the greatest city in the world.

And it wasn’t bad, but Marvin didn't have the best memories from there, not to mention how tired he was from training, so he wasn’t really all that into the various attractions they went to.

Finally, after being done with his day, he just threw himself into his bed wishing for sleep. And mumbling every curse he could think of because it wasn’t coming for him fast enough. It was twelve thirty and he was tired as hell for crying out loud.

Still his roommates were at least gone.

Slowly but surely, he felt himself drift off to sleep, where he expected to find some peace and quiet.

How wrong he was.

Marvin opened his eyes and was met by the ruined cityscape he saw when he had last spoken with Amdis. Only this time there were no younger versions of himself or his principal in sight. It was, however, still snowing. with a thin layer of the cold substance covering the ground. It was all he could to stop himself from shaking in the cold.

“It’s quite comforting.” called out an, unfortunately familiar, voice behind him.

Amdis stood there, wearing his-by now trademark-dark red suit and sharp blue tie, seemingly unbothered by the weather. “This whole setting I mean. I remember it like it was yesterday. The grandest battle in all of history, its only shame being the fact that those Association brutes somehow managed to cover it up.” he explained, snarling as he mentioned the IDA.

Looking at the glowing heptagram that covered the sun with its shadow, Marvin found himself wondering just how they managed to secure that secret, although he figured that wasn’t the most pressing matter.

“Why can’t you just leave me alone?” questioned Marvin weakly, not meeting the vampire’s gaze.

“We’ve been over this before my boy. You need to ask better questions.” chided Amdis, smirking at the teen. “Or does even being here affect you so much that you can’t become anything more than the broken little boy you were that day?”

He was taunting him. Causing him to doubt himself and slowly drive himself insane like every other time they had communicated. Meeting his gaze, Marvin felt himself stand up straight. He may have been much shorter than the vampire, he still would stand to his full height and meet him head on. This wasn’t an actual confrontation, he couldn’t do anything to hurt him.

“Let me ask you another one then.” responded Marvin, making his voice as strong as he could. “What’s your end goal? Why did you go through all of this trouble to get Marly? And all of that just to wound her grandfather. You said you wanted me to beat you, and I can’t do that if I don’t understand you.” He hoped that sounded sincere and not like he was just fishing for information to give Eobard and Kara.

Granted he hadn’t said anything that wasn’t true, but as it stood now, he had no clue as to how Amdis would react to the news that he and his teammates went back to the IDA for help.

“It wasn’t that complicated, you know. It did hinge on that foolish vaewolf to fail, although I didn’t have many doubts about that. Your insecurities would make you want to take me out yourself, thinking that you’d prove your worth like that.

“You’d come alone, I’d have my fun, and kill you when I got bored. Taking Marly Mallory and her friends hostage would be easy. Although I counted on it failing.” explained the vampire, appearing actually happy that his plan was failing. Hell, he was even smiling. And ugly, manic smile that showcased his long fangs.

“I won’t stop.” declared Marvin, keeping his voice even for the first time since meeting the ancient creature. “And the Association won’t either. They’ll-we’ll come for you. I made a promise, and I’ll be damned if I don’t get Ava Mallory out of your grasp.” He was shouting at this point, but he didn’t care. All he wanted was to wipe that smile from Amdis’s damn face.

Instead the vampire just started laughing as loudly as humanly possible. If his smile was manic, then his laughter was downright insane. And it made Marvin deflate a bit. Sure, he knew he wasn’t a threat to the vampire. Especially considering what Kara told him about what was coming. But he didn’t expect that sort of reaction.

“Oh trust me Marvin.” began Amdis when his laughter finally died down. “I know. I know that you went back to your mentors and the Association. That, no matter what I do, my days as a free man are numbered. And that’s why I’m laughing.”

“You are actually insane.” muttered a baffled Marvin.

“You don’t see it.” sighed Amdis. “You’re too young. It’s all a game -a game that I don’t want to win. I’ve said so before, haven’t I? Playing with your minds, seeing you break down, struggling to win, that is where the fun is.

“My scheme fell apart and I now find myself actually faced with the possibility of defeat! Why wouldn’t I be laughing?” asked the crazy vampire, his eyes staring right into Marvin's soul.

It suddenly stopped snowing. Looking up, Marvin could see the shadows covering the sun extend downwards at an alarming rate.

“So thank you Marvin Perlie, thank you for bringing me this satisfaction.”

Before the dark haired teen could respond, the world itself was consumed by darkness. A cold, painful darkness that caused him to unconsciously start screaming, until it swallowed him as well.

It was not a moment later when Marvin found himself sitting upright on his futon, breathing heavily and with cold sweat dripping from his forehead. Looking around the room he saw that his roommates were fast asleep. At least his screams didn’t translate in real life.

Getting his breathing under control, he realised he was gripping his bedsheet in a white knuckle grip.

“Why?” he muttered as quietly as he could.

He had met Amdis a grand total of three times, but it was clear from those that he wanted to face failure. And he admitted it himself that he was close to it. And, in Marvin’s humble opinion, the sheer craziness he had, especially in this latest ‘conversation’, was too much to be faked.

So why was it that Marvin was so afraid?

As if in answer to his question, his phone vibrated, revealing a message from Marly. Actually, it was more along the lines of the fifth message left by her, a simple ‘Open up dammit I've been out here for 10 mins’ being its content. He also looked at his phone’s clock, seeing that it was one thirty in the morning.

Sighing softly, Marvin put on his prosthesis before he stood up, and opened his door to reveal the heterochromatic blonde standing there with an annoyed expression on her face. She seemed to be wearing nothing but an undershirt and shorts. Granted Marvin wasn’t wearing his glasses and it was pretty dark, but even then he thought he could make out her blurry form well enough.

“You’re lucky I couldn’t get in myself without causing a ruckus.” mumbled Marly as she strode in his room.

“As much as I want to have this conversation with you, this isn’t the best time.” stated Marvin as quietly as he could, so much so that he was afraid she wouldn’t hear him.

Sighing, Marly sat on his futon with crossed legs. “No. Putting this off will only make things worse. So sit and talk with me.”

Resigning himself to the fact that she wouldn’t back down from this, Marvin sat next to her.

“Listen, what happened earlier I just-I-damn it.” muttered Marvin.

This was much harder than he’d anticipated. There were so many things he wanted to say. He wanted to tell her that, even though the past few months were so chaotic and hectic that he never thought about it, he actually wanted to see where their relationship could lead.

That he knew how difficult this whole thing was for her, and he didn’t want to force her into anything she wasn’t ready for.

That he was scared she’d already realised that this was a mistake on her part, and that he wasn’t sure he could handle losing one of the first people he had started developing any sort of relationship with in years.

That even if anything happened he was afraid he’d mess it up so much that he would be right back where he started.

“Don’t be thinking so hard, it’ll make your brain melt.” quietly chuckled Marly. “I don’t know what you’re thinking about but this isn’t easy for me either.”

“We’ve spent a lot of time together these past few months.”

“That we have.” agreed Marly.

“And while I want this, us, to happen I-I’m afraid.” There, he admitted it. Probably one of the hardest things he’d ever had to do, and that included facing vampire-werebeast hybrids.

“That’s fine you idiot.” responded Marly, grabbing his hand. “I am too. And I’m not ready for anything at the moment. But maybe later, after we’ve rescued Ava…”

In spite of himself, Marvin chuckled. “So we decided that we haven’t decided? Not really the most productive meeting, is it?”

“Let’s do it.” breathlessly called out Marly. “Tomorrow. Let’s just spend the free time together and see where that leads us.”

“Sounds good to me.” smiled Marvin, squeezing her hand. If he were to be honest he didn’t expect this whole conversation to go well at all. Which just made him worry about whatever else Marly wanted to talk about.

“Good.” smiled Marly. “Just promise me you won’t have any weird reaction with what I do next.”

Before he even registered her words, Marvin felt her hand leave his as she turned around and removed her shirt. While he instinctively turned away-even if a sizable portion of himself disagreed-he heard her cough and urge him to look.

And look he did.

Her back was turned to him, showing her bare back. Only that it wasn’t bare. Aside from her bra’s behind, there was a large-well, it was certainly something.

Her middle back had a heptagram inscribed in a circle, seemingly branded into it-giving Marvin the urge to do things to whoever did this that would make them regret being born-connected with three smaller circles underneath it, depicting a double-infinity, a snake eating each own tale, and a triple spiral respectively. A wall of symbols was behind them-Marvin supposed they were words, written in a language he couldn’t understand.

He reached out to touch the strange tattoo-slash-branding, feeling Marly’s skin tense under his touch, although she didn’t say anything.

“What is this? Who did this?” he asked, some of his anger and worry leaking to his voice.

Marly chuckled humorlessly. “I’ve had it for as long as I can remember. It used to hurt so bad when I was little. Hell, we still have people whose job it is to cover up the tattoo portion for when it might be visible. I asked my grandpa about it when I was young and he said it was a remnant from my vampiric side. Nothing more.”

“So-” Marvin realised he had to choose his words very carefully, “-you think that this has something to do with why Amdis and whoever he words with want you?”

Her silence was enough of an answer for him. It wasn’t an unreasonable thing to suggest. The heptagram, circles with seemingly obscure symbols within them, and what was surely a language of some sorts. If he were to guess it was a sort of spell, a really powerful one since it appeared so complicated. But it was too late for such guesswork.

“I haven’t told anyone else. I want to figure out what it is before I do anything about it. Which means I need your help. So far you’ve lived up to your word and had my back. And I won’t let you forget about that promise, you hear?” her voice got louder at that remark, well, at least as loud as it could considering the situation.

“Good. I wouldn’t have it any other way.” responded Marvin, smiling faintly even as he pushed the question of what her sharing such a secret with him meant for their strange relationship. Further feelings aside, his companionship with Marly-hell his companionship with everyone he’d met-was one of the things he was thankful for the most in this new world.

Which is why, in spite of everything, he found himself smiling softly in the darkness of the hotel room.