Free Bozena and Sveta (Neuripra) by Poppet

slakax-humans were never on the cards when the games were dealt out.
    He laughs, and it's frivolous and delighted; the true laugh of the celestial leader, “Oh Akae, you swore the oath. When you swore the oath you married the word. All of creation is one, why can't demon marry slakax-humans? There's no such rule preventing it.”
    “ Keep your eyes on your duties soldier. You're not here to flirt with the project,” I snap back, becoming increasingly irritable.
    He turns, the light cloak shadowing him and glowing brightly into the darkness with luminescence, “Akae, there are no rules. Bar one. If anyone can heal Bo žena, it would be me. She's a child of light turned dark through fear. I am the antithesis of fear. I am the antivenin to her misery.”
    “ No! No Arsay, you are not going to touch her! Do you understand me? You touch her and I'll make sure you can't manifest here again.”
    “ That's your pride talking. If I don't manifest here what a very dark world it will be.”

 
    Chapter 10
     
    Božena:
     
    Darise comes around the bar counter, kissing me in the customary way, three times.
    “ How are you sweetheart?” he says, smiling and frowning together.
    “ I dunno. I feel bipolar these days.”
    He nods sagely, “You should have stuck to the vampyre. We're less complicated.”
    A hot arm presses up against mine at the bar and I twist nervously at the contact, looking onto Jowendrhan's blue eyes, “Wise words. You should listen to him Zena.”
    Oddly I can tell Jo is joking, but Darise felt serious.
    I swivel my attention back to the man on my left, “You're mortal now Darise. Why would you even say that?”
    He gives me a dark smile thick with unspoken promises and secrets, “Am I? How can you be so sure?”
    I look back to Jo, expecting an answer – clarification – something.
    Jo dips his head, his brown hair turning snow white when his eyes flare to quicksilver, “He's a changed man, Zena. I was getting lonely being the only vampyre in this city.”
    But Sveta's cousin is half vampyre - half neuri. “You aren't alone. Make friends with Aisyx,” I say.
    Darise snorts, caressing his hand down my back before moving behind the bar, refilling my wineglass and leaning close, facing me from his post on the other side. “There's a war going on Zena. We need all hands on deck.”
    “Or all hands on dick would work just as well,” laughs Jo.
    It makes me smile. He's got such a filthy mind, I adore him. We have murderous history between us, but I still harbor a soft spot for Jowendrhan.
    “The last time I put my hands on your dick you nearly broke them off,” I tease back.
    “ Last time they were on mine I thought you were going to keep me cumming for a week,” Darise snarks.
    “ Fuck off Darise. I'm not interested. You are way too complicated.”
    We had one night together, just one. He betrayed Zaria by coming onto me and then shot at her new boyfriend Zauran, killing Seithe when he missed.
    Fear twists my core when I look at him, and I lower my voice to a whisper, “You shot at Zauran. Your kind of crazy I do not need in my life.”
    Jowendrhan joins in the group whisper, “It's like old times hey Zena? Darise shooting at the innocent must remind you of your mother.”
    “And her boyfriend,” I snap.
    La-freaq, these two have known me much too long. I can't believe they knew me when all that shit went down.
    This is just making me tense. The last thing I want to think about is when mama got arrested for shooting at a woman in the dead of night. It was premeditated and planned. I don't care how she defended it, that's not a sane way to behave.
    Darise plops something into my wine with a slight of hand, and it starts to fizz at me. “Drink it, it'll chill you out. And for the record Zena, I'm no longer mortal. The next time I fuck you I'm not letting up until you come back to the vampyre camp.”
    “Next time? There won't be a next time. So, what are you?” I say, examining the