The Shape Shifting Master Ch 9

Cold-Hearted Book Worms



"Can I ask you a question?" Raven asked calmly as she looked up at the mad man that was holding her captive. Her black outfit had been ripped along the way and he didn't even bother to give her anything to cover her feet. There was absolutely no warmth in this small little place that he called his home.

Her kidnapper just ignored her and continued to read his book. He sat there in his chair, his feet up on the table, and drinking his red liquid. His long black trench coat that he usually wore was hanging on the back of his chair, and he had his long black hair tied back in a ponytail. His black eyes sped over the words on the page before him as he lifted up his glass for another sip of that bright red stuff. It was the only thing that he would drink. Now that she thought about it, it was the only thing she ever saw him consume at all...  Raven realised then that she had never yet seen him eat any solid food. She shook her head to clear it and tried to communicate with him again. "I said can I ask you a question?"

"I will have no choice but to hear your question whether I want to or not." he sorta mumbled to himself. He sighed and placed his finger inside his book as he placed it on his lap and looked over at the annoying girl that was intteruppting the climax of a very good story. "Shoot," he said.

"First off, why are you doing this to me? What do you have against me when we've never meet each other before? I don't even know you're name!" Raven asked, partly confused, partly frightened, but mostly just angry at the way this guy had treated her.

"I have no need for you." He responded, "But my Master has great plans for you."

"Who is your Master?" She asked.

"Our bargain was for one question." He said, returning to his book.

Raven sighed grumpily. "Just one more. Please?" She begged.

"If I answer will you shut up?" He was losing his patience. If this kept up much longer, he might be forced to kill her just to shut her up...

"Depends on your answer." Raven said in response

He sighed and rolled his eyes before nodding his head yes.

"Ok, so could I have a blanket or something? And I'm starving!  If you want to take me to your Master alive, you need to feed me before I die of starvation."

Vincent sighed, exasperated. He returned to his book. "Your silence is required for me to finish this book." He said, annoyed at the angry babbling thoughts that Raven was shooting at him. "Then I suppose, maybe, I could go out shopping."

"Thank you."  Raven said with a genuine smile at him.

He smirks and only five minutes had passed when he closed the book and got up out of his chair. He grabbed some sunglasses from the table, and got his leather jacket from the closet and just as Raven thought he was going to go out the door and leave her starving and alone in the cold dark room, he came back and threw a blanket at her.


*meanwhile*



When they got back to the small little house in the clearing at the edge of the woods, Axel was complaining about wasting their time and Destiny was telling him to shut up. Meriah walked ahead to open up the door for the rest of them. Katara comes running to the door, and excitedly asks if they found her. Meriah sadly shakes her head. "No, we looked everywhere." she said. She took off her shoes and walked over to fall down onto the couch.

Destiny kicks off her shoes and walks over to sit beside her sister. Katara, dissapointed, follows them to slouch down on the sofa too. "What are we going to do?" sighed Destiny.

"I have an idea!" exclaimed Meriah suddenly. "Conner, remember that time when we were looking for a place to stay, and on the way there we saw a piece of parchment stuck to a pole that said 'Lost dog' with a picture? What if we did that for Raven?"

"That's a great idea!" said Katara. "I saw some paper today while I was looking for Ray. I'll go get it!" She jumped up and ran out of the room.

"These aren't going to help." said Axel, finishing up his drawing and holding it up. "It looks nothing like her."

Conner was concentrating intently on his drawing, and Meriah was aleady on ther third poster. She glanced up briefly from her work, stifled a laugh, and then went back to drawing. Conner finshed his materpiece and held it up proudly. "I think it looks just like her." He said. He had drawn a black stick figure and given it brown curly hair with a purple streak in the front. It had brown dots for eyes, a tiny brown dot nose, and a curved red line smile. Katara started to giggle, and Axel raised an eyebrowl skeptically.

The next day when the group had finally finshed making their posters (Meriah had a stack of about 40, Destiny and Katara each had 28, Axel had 25, and Conner had just finished his tenth one) they set out to put them on the poles around the town. They only had one problem... "How do you get this thing to stay?" Exclaimed Conner, frustrated as his beautiful drawing fell to the ground for the third time.

"We're not too far away from the cute little church where Pastor Chad lives. Maybe he can help  us." said Meriah.

"I'm sure he doesn't live there, Mer. He only works there." said Destiny.

Meriah ignored her sister and set out in the direction of the church. Conner was right behind her. He ran in front of her so that he could open the door for her. He smiled as she said thank you and walked in. "Hello?" Yelled Conner, his voice echoing through the front hall of the building. "Anyone home?"

Sure enough, Youth Pastor Chad was there. He walked around the corner just as they were about to enter the sanctuary. "Oh, hello, guys. I haven't seen you in a while. Looking for an evil king again?" He asked with a chuckle.

"Actually, we were wondering if you could help us out." said Destiny, getting ready to show Chad one of her drawings when Conner pushed her aside.

"Have you seen this girl?" he intterupted, holding up one of his stick figure drawings right in Chad's face. Chad took the paper and held it down where he could see it. The top of the page said, "Lost Gurl - Ansers to Rayvin" Chad looked at the stick figure for a moment, and debated what he should say. He wanted to help, but this picture could be just about anyone...

Meriah rolled her eyes and held up one of her posters. "This is what she looks like." Everyone was impressed by her drawing. The poster looked exactly like Raven, every detail was perfect, right down to the small black mole on the left side of her nose.

"Oh, I see. I'm sorry guys, I haven't seen her around here. If you'll excuse me, there is some work I have to get done in my office. If you need anything feel free to come find me." He walked away. The group turned to leave and found themselves face to face with a blonde haired man wearing a long black coat, a black shirt, and black pants. His blue eyes sparkled as he smiled at them.

"Dante!" yelled Katara, running to him and embracing him in a tight hug.

"Hey, buddy, long time no see. Where have you been?" asked Conner, giving him a friendly handshake and a manly pat on the back.

"I have come to help you guys out." said Dante, avoiding Conner's previous question.

"Right now we're looking for a friend of ours." said Destiny, holding up her picture of Raven. "So unless you know where she is, we don't need you."

"I've got some secrets to tell you guys..." said Dante, nervously. He wasn't quite sure how this was going to go. He had aquired some new powers since the last time they'd met, and he wasn't about to say where or how he'd gotten them. That was beside the point, though, he came back to warn them. To give them the note that had so mysteriously found it's way into his room last night. He had read it and couldn't make any sense out of it, but then again, it was addressed to Axel, so he figured he might know what was going on. The note did mention something about a fight, though, and Dante wanted to prove to his new friends that he really was a good guy and that he was never going back to the power of the darkness. So Dante planned on going to this fight with Axel, fighting on the right side this time,  and use his new powers to help them win.

"Oh, yeah? Like what?" Destiny asked. She still didn't trust him completely, and she probably never would. Anyone who was just last year tried to kill one of her friends was not worthy to be trusted. This was most likely just another scam to pull them in and get them to go to a certain place by a certain time so that a certain evil someone can lead them to their certain death. Destiny watched him skeptically and waited for his reply.

"Well," said Dante, debating what new power he should demonstrate first. He decided he might get on Destiny's better side if she saw that he could transform now too. "Like this.." He said, transforming into a giant black dog. He had short, corse fur, giant pointed ears, and a long (slightly bushy) tail, but his eyes were the same beatiful sky blue. The eyes always stayed the same. That was what told Destiny that the white sparkling dragon really was Axel... She knew his eyes. Although Dante's eyes may be the same color as somone she loved, they were not at all the same. Dante's eyes were darker, there was something mysterious in them. Destiny couldn't quite place what it was, but when ever she looked into his eyes, it was like looking into the eyes of a monster - an enemy - it just unsettled her too much to dwell on it, so she shook her head a bit to clear it. Whatever it was, there was something there, something not very nice, and Destiny wasn't about to trust it.

Conner screamed out in terror at the sight of Dante transforming, but Axel just looked annoyed. "Another one?" he sighed. Destiny and Meriah shot him dirty looks. Destiny fealt hurt. So he didn't like people who could transform? For a moment she had thought that maybe, just maybe he was different, that he could possibly be the one that she had been searching for, her prince charming, her knight in shining armour... but this knight's armour was dented and dirty and hurtful. She crossed her arms and looked away from him.

"Axel, I've got a message for you." said Dante, transforming back into his normal self and taking a folded up piece of paper out of his pocket. The rest of the group crowded around Axel as he read the note. "King Axel, If you wish to ever see your sorceress princess Raven Belle Krimzin again, you will meet me at the place where your father was diminished of his power for an honorable fight. We shall meet tomorrow at noon, if you plan to face me. Most sincerely, Luxord." Axel was puzzled. Luxord? Who was Luxord? He had never heard of any Luxord. Whoever he was, he knew that Axel was the Dragon King, and they knew Raven. Evidently, he was supposed to fight to get her back. He knew that stupid girl was going to be trouble the first day they met. Why should he care that she'd been kidnapped? They didn't even really know her. What if this was some kind of trap to lure them in so that a greater enemy could overtake them... but who? The only enemy that they knew of was Sepheroth, and he was reformed now... wasn't he?

"Luxord?" asked Destiny.

"Sorceress?" said Meriah.

"Princess?" said Katara.

"Honorable?" asked Conner. Everyone looked at him.

"Noon?" said Axel, looking up at the clock on the wall, "That's like right now."

Katara looked worried. "Should we go? What if it's some kind of trap?"

"We have to save Raven." Destiny said, determined.

"We're not going to make it in time." said Axel.

Dante smiled as he scoffed at them. "We can all be there in a matter of seconds." he said, proudly. Everyone just looked at him as if he was crazy. Hadn't they noticed his ability to pop up where ever when ever he wanted? That was one thing that had not changed. Getting somewhere instantly was easy to him, child's play, really. He almost laughed out loud at the worried looks on his friend's faces. "I can warp us there. We just have to be touching." he explained.

"I am not touching you!" Destiny exclaimed. Dante rolled his eyes. He knew that Destiny still didn't trust him, and he was pretty sure there would always be doubt there, but he was going to try his best to gain her acceptance. Not that it really mattered, because she would probably never see him as anything more than a mere aquaintance, friend of a friend... One she would never take a second look at, assume from the beginning that he always had something else planned, he would never be anything but evil in her eyes... Dante sighed. Why should he care anyway? It didn't really matter what she thought. Dante was not going to let some stupid girl dictate what he was going to do with his life. She didn't know everything... no one did. Why did it bother him so much that this one person could not understand that he had changed? She was just one girl, why did it matter to him so much how she fealt?

         Katara stood on one side of him, and grabbed his hand, breaking his train of thought. Conner was on the other. Dante told himself to focus. Axel stood next to Destiny and Destiny stood next to Katara forming a circle in the middle of the hallway. They all grabbed each others hands and then dissapeared.