A Touch of Magic [Private: The_Enigma and Shadow King]

[The_Enigma]

Not too long after he began sensing for presences did he notice one. It took him by surprise, actually, as it wasn't the one he had expected.

"Aria?" he spoke, genuinely baffled by her presence. He didn't suppose that Aria would be at all interested in assisting him, the way she's acted before. Unless, of course, she was here to help destroy him, which seemed just as likely to Wes. In either case, he was happy she showed up. The darkness has a way of warping one's sense of reality, allowing the stuff of nightmares to creep in and take a foothold in your mind.

Despite Aria's supposed assistance, he was still trapped, and he certainly couldn't remain on the defensive for the entire time; it was a surefire way to get killed. Thrusting a hand into his pocket he wracked his brain for an idea, any idea...until his hand bumped into the vial. The vial that had saved him from darkness before. No, not the vial, but...

"LIGHT! Oh, Light, I almost forgot you were here. You've been abnormally quiet."
"Come now, this is serious. Do you think I would be an obnoxious twerp if there were any real consequences on the line?"
"...well-"
"Don't finish that."
"Alright, fair enough. But Light, do you have any idea?"
"Well, I do, but it's no guarantee that it will have any effect."
"That's fine! I'd take anything at this point! It has to be better than being a sitting duck."
"Well, y'know that poem that we were reciting? It's actually an incantation - a very old one. Older than you would care to imagine. Well, what Dark said wasn't the final word. There is a stanza left..." Wesley thought hard for a moment, wondering how the simple words could have any effect. He didn't sense any magic force when they were said, he just noticed what happened after they were.
"Alright, then...what will happen if you say it?"
"I don't know. I've never actually used it before this."
"Well, it's worth a shot." For a moment everything returned back to the deathly silence, that unnatural stillness which pervaded everything in the old chapel. It was as if Light was hesitating, unsure of whether or not to do anything.
"...And thus from neutrality came both Darkness and Light, and risen from the ashes of neutrality was reason and law, and Darkness tamed reason and law tamed Light and in both was there balance. Utrimque equus, Acerbus, Lumen."

As soon as the words were spoken an intense light radiated from Wesley's body, cutting through the surrounding darkness and blinding him. Wes put his face in his hands, attempting to shield them from such a sudden burst of light, and fell to his knees.

[shadow king]

The darkness and light both canceled out and the entirety of the cathedral was brought to exact balance. There was no more light than there was dark and vice versa. However, Wes and Light would not have time to see what the spell had done.

Dark was directly in front of him with is hand extended towards the boy. As soon as the light had flashed Dark's hand had reached Wes' chest. At first there was no sound, beside Darks' hand ruffing the fabric of Wes' shirt, then the sound of said shirt tearing broke loose, followed by a sickly squelching sound and a slosh of liquid hitting the stone floor.

"I suppose I will just have to damage the body and then repair it before taking it over" Dark stated, his hand already submerged within Wesley's chest. The Sloshing sound had come from a spray of blood which erupted as Dark broke the skin and tore through Wes' pectoral muscle. Next was a snapping sound akin to a board being snapped in two, followed by several more as his rib cage was shattered.

This entire process took but a moment before Dark had his hand around Wesley's heart and with a single spell, stopped it from pumping completely.

This is when Aria entered, finally able to open the cathedral door in time to see Dark drawing his bloody hand out of Wes and smiling wildly. Aria in a rather berserk rage shot a blast of phoenix fire at the goth child, who vanished before he was struck by the flame.

His voice resonated throughout the church walls, "I will be back to collect his body within the next two days."

((Again, if Wes were to die I have plan, and if not then wow...lol))

[The_Enigma]

The pain of the assault didn't register to Wes. In fact, he didn't even know that he had been attacked until his eyes became accustomed to the light and he saw a hand in his chest. Paralyzed with shock, it was all he could do just to stay standing and watch his body be mutilated.

It was a sickly feeling, having a hand wrapped around his heart. He couldn't quite describe it, even if had to. Or wanted to. A small gasp - perhaps of pain, perhaps of the realization that his time had come - seeped out of him as he felt his heart stop. In the last moment of his earthly consciousness he saw his foe vanish into thin air and a wicked blast of fire surge past him. Then everything went black, and the strength went out of his legs, and he fell feebly to the floor.

Needless to say, he was dead.

[shadow king]

Aria's eyes widened as she saw Wes begin to fall, and with all his might he raced over to the boy. She managed to reach him before he had hit the floor completely, catching him and holding him face up.

She checked for a pulse and there was none, she felt his skin cooling quickly within the cold cathedral. It was now she realized the full extent of what had happened, and a single tear rolled down her pale cheek. Her mind was in chaos for a moment, 'what should I do!?' she screamed at herself in her mind. It was here that her spirits finally spoke up under her distress.

'You could give him your blood, though you know not what will happen, it may save his life.' they spoke.

Aria had never tried it before on a live human, thinking that it may have burned away their soul or something, but Wes was dead, and if she did nothing she would lose any chance of reviving him. And so she took the risk, plunging her fangs, first into her arm and sucking as much blood as could be carried, before bringing her face to his neck and biting down.

An injection of her blood large enough to to fill the average blood bag was shot into his body. She figured that it would at least heal his body, as a phoenix would, but she really did not know what would become of Wesley, though she hoped for the best.

((I will leave what happens to you...but if you think that a vampire's bite creates another vampire, than what does Aria's bite do?))

[The_Enigma]

Wesley's eyes fluttered open. He realized Aria's face was looming over his, but he did not realize exactly what had happened. In that moment, however, all of the fear and adrenaline that had been with him in his last few moments came rushing back. He shoved Aria, causing her to fall to the floor, and jumped to his feet. Advancing on the girl, he began uttering a string of ancient words, preparing a most heinous spell.

But something caused him to stop. Something he couldn't quite place. He remembered that it was important to him right before he died, something of grave importance...

"My heart..." he breathed, another paralytic shock seizing him. With an unsteady hand he brought two fingers to his wrist and placed them gently upon the flesh. He waited eagerly, expectantly. He was sure, in another second it would come. He shifted the fingers, certain that he was just missing the vein.

But he waited in vain. The pulse did not come. The warmth did not come back. Now in a panic again, he brought the same hand up to his neck, grasping the side in a futile attempt to perhaps disprove what he suspected. But it was true, his tender palms brushed against the two small holes. He fell to his knees, hands dropping to his sides, and simply stared desperately, hopelessly at Aria. The Phoenix girl. The Vampire girl. The one who did this to him.

Although Wes was under the impression that he had been turned into a vampire, another one of the undead, his body had actually been infused with Vampire and Phoenix blood, bestowing some of its magical properties onto his own body. Though his heart did not beat, he was indeed living. The beat was replaced with a steady ember of Phoenix fire, casting its magical heat upon his being from the inside out. He was now, in some small part, Human, Vampire, and Phoenix.

[shadow king]

Aria was startled by the sudden push and then the furious enchanting that Wesley was storming up. As soon as he stopped, she let out a sigh of relief, she was not going to be smited right off the face of the earth by a furious sorcerer.

As he felt for his pulse hopelessly she stood up and looked at him with a sad look in her eyes. She walked up to him and embraced him, burying her head in his chest, his warm chest, yet there was no beating, no blood being pumped, simply stopped in his veins.

"I'm sorry, but it was the only possibility I had left. If there was any other way I would have taken it, even if it had been destroying myself." she said into his chest, hugging him tightly. "I wasn't absolutely sure that it would work though, it was a risk of destroying you completely or worse."

The things that she didn't realize was that she had just enslaved Wesley to an eternity as her servant, and that by giving him her blood he was potentially giving the same to Dark. However neither of those troubled her at the moment, she was just glad he was safe and sound.

Unbeknown to both of them there were now two knew spirits slumbering within Wesley now, along with Light.

[The_Enigma]

Wes arms wrapped around Aria in a reactionary motion as she hugged him. He held on to the embrace for a while, coming to terms with his new state of existence. Once he had found peace within himself, there was one small bit that puzzled him still.

"Aria," he spoke softly, "Why are you being so nice to me? This doesn't seem like you at all..."

Somewhere deep within him, two new magical forces began awakening drowsily from their slumber, and began vying for control. Light was the only one to notice.

"Hey, uh, Wesley?" Wes chose not to listen, instead absorbing the moment, waiting the response from Aria.

[shadow king]

"It must not have come to mind what position you are now in has it?" she asked wit sorrow and guilt in her voice, looking up into his eyes.

"You will now serve me for all eternity as a servant kept alive by my blood and power." she stated, leaning up and kissing him gently upon the lips. "Your past existence is nothing to you now, the sorcerers that once trained you and lead you have the right to try and smite you for treason against the magical arts of the sorcerer."

She spoke of how her blood would soon enough change his magic, making it less and less like his previous kind and more like hers. He was an abomination of a man now, not a part of the living and not akin to the dead, and because of this he would be a fugitive for the rest of his existence if they could find and fuse Dark back into him before he disappeared.

[The_Enigma]

The thought had not occurred to him before, the fact that he would be Aria's servant for the rest of his existence. Which, if logic proved true, would be for quite a while. Much to his own surprise, though, the thought did not phase him. In fact, it didn't even bother him. "Why doesn't it bother me?" he thought. And then, an epiphany.

Quickly shuffling to the side, he hastily pulled at his shirt and threw it to the ground next to him. A small chuckle escaped him involuntarily as he stared at his chest. His completely barren chest. A chest devoid of symbols that might represent pacts of any sort. "Aria!" he exclaimed, "I'm free!" As if to emphasize the fact he pointed to his bare chest. "Ha! I'm free!" he now gloated, "'...And you shall be my servant until the day you die!' Well guess what?"

The rest of that thought didn't need to be said. His eyes gleamed with some perverse madness, a sweeping sense of exuberance so euphoric it could only result in delirium. He continued to laugh as he fell face down into the floor.

Once again Light tugged at his consciousness, trying to make him aware of the two additional presences manifesting themselves within him. "Hey! Wesley! Are you listening to me? We've got a problem here..."

[shadow king]

"Do you really think that such deep magic would be outdone by a simple clone" she stated as she stuck out her hand and merely stated the name of the symbol. The symbol that had not existed on his real body would sear into his chest with a heat that may make him think that he was being burned alive. The symbol would appear in the exact spot as the one placed on the clone.

"And I no longer needed that symbol, you should know that, having researched vampire's blood and the phoenix's flame, both binding in nature for their gifts to be shared." she added, it was not necessarily with glee that she stated, but a small bit of happiness shone through the gloom in her voice, the happiness that she would have a partner in her long existence who would not grow old and die like the others.

She knew nothing of the two new spirits within Wes, but she did know that sooner or later he would thirst for blood, such was the way of the vampire.