Raw

Violet took a step forward and plunged into his embrace, oozing trepidation in a way Kieren had never felt from her before. There wasn't much that scared her, or threw her into a state of uncertainty, but this, this did.

"I don't know."

Kieren tightened his grip on her body in understanding, she was afraid. And despite the seriousness of the situation he couldn't help but feel thrilled with this side of her. The way her eyebrows were furrowed and the way she was nibbling on her lip in distress, she had acted aloof in front of his mother, but here, alone, she was open and quite vulnerable. It was enchanting, and for once this had something to do with him.

Excitement yanked at his core.

He began moving slowly until they were leaning against a tree. He took Violet's chin with one hand and pulled her jaw up until they were at eye level. Very slowly and carefully he began to cover her in kisses until the tension left her shoulders and her back, until she softened completely against his chest. Kieren wrapped her within his own body, protectively, lovingly, longingly. He tilted her head back and covered her lips with his hoping that somehow his excitement and devotion would soak into her skin. "How late are you?"

Violet sighed, closed her eyes, and opened her mouth to speak when a sudden waft of cold air, a sudden burst of motion on their left side caught their attention.

They both paused, Kieren pulled them down watching the surrounding area like a hawk.

"Where are we babe?"

Violet matched his volume, "About a mile and a half from a facility." Kieren raised an eyebrow, "facility?" There was a sudden bite in his tone, and his posture stiffened considerably. Violet met his eyes seriously, "yes, a place I was held in. Listen, last I checked it was abandoned after I 'failed' and I was thinking of taking us someplace abandoned to remove that seal, seeing as how you're going to be quite explosive I was hoping to keep damages to a minimum."

She ignored the anger that darkened his face as another flash of movement danced across her peripheral, "I'm also rather angered to realize that it's not abandoned." She sighed, "most unfortunate, it seems they were hoping we would come here. Kieren, we may have set of a motion sensor and if we did then we're going to have to fight our way out. I need you to not worry about-"

Kieren shut her up with his mouth, it was a rough kiss, his hands wrapped around her frame and when he pulled back his eyes were dark and uncaring. "No, you tell me what to do and I do it. I'm not risking you, not when…"

Violet tried to speak only to be silenced by another dangerously forceful kiss, "Argue with me later, right now, command me."

She didn't often like to give in to others, but there was something about the steely glint in Kieren's normally expressionless eyes that had her agreeing.

She held out a hand, ready when you are. They're going to try and corner us, they won't hold back for you, if anything they'll probably be aiming for your head even more than mine.

They darted forward together watching as figures approached from all sides, Kieren's daggers had appeared and they were slicing into throats as he let go of her hand only to run circles around her.

A figure overhead shouted a word, Violet halted for a second and threw herself sideways, an explosion upended the earth and she found herself separated from Kieren.

Cursing loudly she dodged another bomb. It was enhanced, she noted by the peppery sting on her cheek. They were playing dirty, "Fuck, Kieren!! Avoid the bomb and bullets, they're tampered with!"

Hoping she had been heard Violet raced around the perimeter, she needed a weapon, and quickly. She killed a guard and proceeded to take his gun when another waft of ice cold wind followed by a whistling sound caused her to dodge.

She turned around and came face to face with an older man, he was standing in a fighting stance, calm face, livid eyes.

Ice was forming all around him and it was the constant moment of the ice he was creating that was causing the freezing wind.

Violet huffed as her eyes narrowed, It would appear that for once, the enemy had come to them. Travis, once a mentor to Kieren, and Dolomine's number two had come to play.

"Damn shame." She mumbled.

Here, before an entire squadron, she couldn't fight. Not really, not without giving away her secret, and if by some miracle even of them survived to tell the tale, it would all be for naught. No, that was something that had to stay hidden, that was for Dolomine.

Travis was a man of few words, he took a step forward, and attacked. Before Violet could react Kieren had appeared, he was covered in blood, most of which was not his. He picked her up and encroached them in a wall of flames as a barrage of ice shards hit from all around. He took her by the hand and pulled her behind him protectively, he was angry. "Tell me that these mother fucking bullets weren't-"

"Yea," she spoke loftily, but the rage in her eyes spoke the terrible truth, "created for me. To stunt my healing as they tried to break me. Listen Kieren, that's Travis out there, he's strong and he's going to play as dirty as he wants. He watched you train your entire life and he was still fifty three able bodied warriors." She turned him around, "do you trust me?"

He was taking calming breaths, attempting to calm the raging liquid inside his veins,"With my life."

She kissed him softly, "distract them, distract them all, I need two minutes. When I say, you get in the middle of the circle."

"What happens then?"

"Simple," she murmured against his lips, "don't try to control it, for once, just let your fire breath."

— — —

Violet wiped blood from a slash on her cheek, she had similar cuts around her body and could see that the longer she took, the more Kieren sustained. The battlefield was becoming incredibly volatile as Kieren cut down the numbers. They were growing angrier as he managed to fight Travis and at least two others all while maintaining the tower of flames around Violet.

She tuned out the sounds, removing a seal was dangerous, if you didn't have the original creator it was meant to be almost impossible. But Violet defied impossible, she was the closest thing to rune herself and as she set the circle to break one down she found herself smiling peacefully.

She felt the pull and found herself face to face with Flora. "So you've decided to be a Muse after all."

"Perhaps I see one future, one, Flora in which humans can once again be deserving of the Muse. But for that to happen-"

"The father of your child must be king, a true king, uninhibited."

Violet smiled softly while shaking her head, "Of course you know, but Yes." She held out a hand to Flora who pulled her in and pressed their heads together. "Of course I know, for that light you carry within you will be more than you could have ever imagined. Violet, You are light, the kind that blinds, the kind that creates, the kind that destroys. You are light."

— — —

Violet focused on Kieren, he was fighting in earnest now, brows furrowed as they surrounded him, they were mixing multiple abilities to try to kill him. He was bleeding from his arms, a bullet in his leg, another shard of ice buried by his clavicle.

It was time.

"Kieren."

It was a whisper, inaudible to most, and yet he heard it, her voice was in his chest, calling, commanding. His eyes focused on her, on the circle around her, in tacit understanding they ran to switch places.

She met him half way, threw herself into his arms. Violet connected her lips to his, an open mouth kiss, her eyes lit up, he relaxed into her as she spoke, "Xipahtinemi"

Kieren had gasped, there was fire in his veins, pooling lava. A voice in his chest, a deep rhythmic calling from within, he wasn't controlling fire, he was fire. The world was nothing more than a heap of kindle, created for his very own selfish use.

Travis seemed to sense the shifting in power. He made one last attempt to pierce Kieren and found his path blocked by the dark haired killer.

She had grinned at him wickedly, "Would you like the witness the release of the monster I'm going to unleash upon the world? I'll let you watch."

Her words had chilled him to the bone, he had turned to watch Kieren, the tower of flames had dissolved and Kieren was settling into a glowing circle of runes as the runes themselves latched onto him. Travis was dumbstruck, he turned to Violet, a foot long shard of ice formed, he had to at least kill her. She blocked with her hand, the shard pieced but she didn't flinch, she kept it coming.

She moved forward and skewered her hand until it was covering his face, her eye lit up once again, she pulled him closer. "I'll be taking your ability back."

He let out a scream as Violet removed his rune, she pulled the glowing orb out of his mouth as he convulsed in pain. "You don't deserve this." She released it into the wind.

All around them the fighting had ceased, they were watching with fear, for within the circle Kieren's aura was skyrocketing, a rabid volatile hunger ate at their bones as his eyes dilated completely.

She let Travis fall to the floor, he pushed himself back as he stumbled to get up, he made one last attempt to flee, screaming for their withdraw. The air was heating up, a few of them feel to the ground from the almost immediate lack of oxygen.

Kieren exploded in fire, it was an inordinate amount of power, of flame. It consumed as it spread devouring everything and everyone in its path. Heat and power, charged electricity within a miasma of flames.

Then silence, Kieren opened his eyes and took desperate breaths as he attempted to calm his feverish body. He was drenched in sweat, for a moment fear pooled in his stomach as he looked around. There was nothing left, not a tree, not a seed, no bones, nothing left of their attackers, the facility had crumbled to the ground in pieces.

True obliteration, there was ash, and there was Kieren.

He took a step forward as panic threatened to overwhelm him, and then just like that, from a cloud of settling debris, she appeared.

She was smiling at him, bleeding from a few places, covered in ash and yet her chest and eyes were held up proudly.

She was proud of him, of his flame.

He ran straight to her, for nothing else mattered, nothing else had ever mattered, and nothing else ever would.