Byzantium

Stage 9

Ivy stood at the entrance to Elise's room; She was watching her Host sleep, wondering why she couldn't wake Elise up. Something inside her told her that she should let Elise sleep, but they had somewhere to go. Rayna had called and demanded that a new item be fetched. Ivy played with her tongue piercing and tried to scrounge up the courage to enter Elise's room. She was confused more than anything else. Confused as to why she felt a close kinship with this mangy wolf, why she wanted a relationship like that, why she was so worried about messing it up. Elise hadn't shown any interest in being close friends aside from the normal Host-human relationship, at least as far as Ivy could tell. It made Ivy sigh wistfully.

"How long have you been standing there?"

Ivy almost bit her tongue in surprise at the unexpected question. Elise was still under her covers, facing away from the door, but she had spoken. Slightly nervous, Ivy leaned on the doorway. "Uh, just a minute."

Elise groaned and sat up, running a hand through her mangled hair. "What's up?"

Ivy gathered herself and pushed her confusing emotions far, far away. "We've got somewhere to be."

"No..." Elise plopped back down in bed and brought her blankets up to her chin. "I don't want to go."

"Well, you have to. Get up."

"Tell Rayna I hope all her spells fail in the easiest of ways."

"I'm not going to- what does that even mean?"

"It means I'm not going. I'm taking a stand. We shouldn't go shopping for Rayna anymore. I don't trust her."

"Yes, I know. I also know that she's the only one keeping Judah up and running."

Elise moaned and wanted to tell Ivy that that wasn't true. Judah would do just fine without Rayna and whatever Carmen was doing to him. But a part of Elise didn't want to bring down Rayna's wrath. If she had someone on her payroll that could successfully revive a person, then she most likely had the means to take out a single human and a wolf. Then again, Rayna clearly needed Ivy for some reason. Elise wondered if she could sabotage Rayna's plans without putting Ivy in danger.

"Well?" Ivy said, snapping her fingers once. "Get up."

"I oughta..." Elise didn't finish the thought. She crawled out of bed and stretched, scanning the floor for a pair of pants. "What are we going to get?"

"Something called a flesh rose."

Elise stilled, her arms in the air. Her mouth dropped and she blinked stupidly. "Did you just... did you say a flesh rose?"

"Yeah."

"Are you nuts!" Elise pressed the heels of her hands to her temples as she finally brought forth her sense. "That's so dangerous! They don't even have a practical use. Why in the world would Rayna want one?"

"I don't know. She just wants one."

"Oh my god. Oh my god." Elise paced around her room in a tizzy. Her thoughts buzzed angrily and she couldn't stop gnawing on her inner cheek. Then, wanting to show indisputable proof of the upcoming danger, she stopped pacing and turned to Ivy. She lifted her shirt and exposed her belly. "I tried to get a flesh rose once, and this is what happened to me. This is all I got, too. I never got that rose."

Ivy paused at the odd behavior but stepped into Elise's room and leaned in close to see what Elise was trying to show. All Ivy laid eyes on was a tattoo of a nasty looking gargoyle. "I don't... what am I looking at?"