Dangerous Games - Chapter Eighteen

Hey everyone, sorry again this took so long, and I hope you find this chapter enjoyable; I tried a few new things in this chapter, so like always please let me know what you think good or bad in the comments down below. Your feedback is truly appreciated.

As always, Thank You for Reading!!!

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With the operation a success Ethan and Joe move his mother back to her room and Sera, who was unconscious, into the room next door. Ethan speaks with Diane who assures him that both his mother and Sera are fine. To his chagrin, she also states that she was going to stay with his mother all night, not so subtly emphasizing that he should focus on Sera. Doing as she suggested, Ethan sits in the chair by Sera’s bed and waits. A little over an hour passes when he finally hears Sera stirring awake, getting up; Ethan goes to her side and gently calls her name.

“Sera…Sera can you hear me?”

Sera’s eyes shoot open, they were completely black, her hand shoots up and grabs Ethan’s forearm tightly. Ethan winced in pain at her tight grip, but the pain is quickly forgotten as he’s suddenly pulled into the bed with Sera quickly climbing on top of him. She lets out a hiss as she looks down at him, her fangs fully elongated. Ethan could sense her hunger and knew that Sera wasn’t fully in control of herself. Her mouth slowly moves to his neck with her fangs ready to pierce his skin. Ethan braces himself for the bite, but just as Sera’s fangs touch his skin she stops; her whole body begins to tremble as he feels her trying to resist the urge to bite him. Ethan is confused at first, but then remembers her reaction from this morning, how angry and disgusted she was with herself for feeding on him. Realizing this; Ethan takes a deep breath and relaxes his body.

“It’s okay Sera, go ahead.” Ethan says softly as he gently rubs her back.

Sera stops trembling, and Ethan waits for her to bite him, but instead she sits up and looks down at him. Ethan sees that her eyes were still black but now her irises were violet again.

“I’m sorry.” Sera states solemnly.

Ethan quickly sits up and looks Sera in the eye, “Sera it’s okay, we’re okay. I don’t care that your part vampire, I don’t care that you find my blood delicious, if you want it, you can have it. You are not a monster.” Ethan states vehemently.

Sera looks into Ethan’s eyes sees that he meant every word, Sera lets out a deep breath and lets herself fall into Ethan and hugs him tightly; Ethan smiles and returns Sera’s hug.

“Now, do you need blood?” Ethan asks.

Sera sits back and looks at Ethan, “No, I’m fine now. It’s been a long time since I’ve used so much magic in such a precise nature. That…lapse in judgement a moment ago, was just my exhaustion letting itself be known. But honestly, I’m fine now, more importantly how is your mother doing?”

Ethan smiles, “Thanks to you, Diane says my mom is cured and doing fine, she’s resting in her room next door. Now if you're up for it, there’s somewhere we need to go.”

Before Sera could ask where, she’s interrupted by a knock on the door, Ethan gets up and opens the door knowing it was Joe.

“Hey, you got everything?” Ethan asks.

“Yeah.” Joe answers.

“What about what I asked Diane for?”

Joe hands Ethan a black backpack and says, “In the bag, good luck kid.”

Joe gives Sera a small wave before going next door to check on Helen and Diane.

Ethan lifts the backpack over his shoulder and turns to Sera, “C’mon let’s go.”

Ethan had a taxi take him and Sera to one of the many industrial parts of Port Iron, during the trip Sera looked to Ethan for answers but he just sat there quietly looking out the window. Though full of questions, Sera didn’t push for answers and joined him in silence; when the taxi stopped, Sera saw they were at a large factory that seemed to be abandoned. Exiting the taxi; Sera watches as Ethan speaks to the driver, but doesn’t pay him, instead they speak for a few moments and then the taxi drives off.

Sera looks at Ethan quizzically.

“Deslin is a friend.” Ethan answers Sera’s unasked question.

“And what exactly is this place?” Sera asks.

“It’s a base… of sorts.” Ethan answers, as he leads Sera inside.

“Of sorts?”

Inside the factory, Sera saw that unlike the outside, the inside had been completely renovated.

“This is where Joe and I come to plan and practice some of our more complicated heists. The top two floors are a maze of rooms and hallways used to practice breaching and infiltration, while the ground floor has a gym and pool. Lastly, the basement is a fully stocked two-bedroom apartment, but first we’re going to the roof.” Ethan explains.

“What’s on the roof?” Sera questions.

“You’ll see.”

As Ethan leads her to the staircases Sera looks around and sees the gym was large and full of equipment it was clearly meant for multiple people.

“If you can afford all this, why do you still live in that small ass apartment?” Sera asks.

“Hey now! First off, it’s my mother’s apartment, second, its where I grew up its my home, and lastly, I can’t afford all this.” Ethan states in mock outrage. “This place was given to us as compensation.”

Reaching the staircase, Ethan leads Sera up towards the roof.

“Compensation, for what?”

“Years back I did a favor for a friend of Joe’s who owns a private security firm.”

“Are you referring to the Titan Security job?” Sera interrupts.

Ethan looks back at Sera in surprise, “How do you know about that?”

“I learned quite a bit about your Red Eye persona when I was searching for you.” Sera replies.

“You mean when you were hunting me.” Ethan corrects, cocking one of his eyebrows at her, daring her to deny it.

Sera doesn’t reply, instead just giving him a wolfish grin.

Ethan rolls his eyes and continues the climb up, “Yes, the Titan job, anyway as thanks, Joe’s friend lets us use this place whenever we want. It’s a private training center for the company’s personal, but me and Joe use it whenever we need to practice getting past certain floor or security plans for a job.”

“So, we’re alone?” Sera asks.

“Yep.”

“Good to know.” Sera says under her breathe.

Finally reaching the roof, Sera looks around and sees there’s nothing there, beside some skylight openings.

Ethan turns to Sera, “Wait here.”

Sera does as he asks and waits as Ethan makes his way across the roof and stops a good distance away, with his back to her Ethan puts down the backpack he had been carrying and opens it. Sera watches as Ethan begins taking things out of the backpack, one item in particular caught her eye, it was some sort of dagger which Ethan strapped to his lower back. After a minute Ethan closes the backpack and puts it back on, turning around Sera is surprised to see Ethan wearing his Red Eye mask.

Ethan lifts the mask off his face, “Sera, you saved my mother's life, and there’s nothing I could ever do to thank you enough. In this backpack are the files I took from your office, the necklace, and even the thumb drive I initially stole from you.”

Sera is about to speak but Ethan holds up his hand to stop her.

“Now as much as I want to just give them to you, my pride won’t let me, so instead we’re going to play a game. I’m going to run, and you have to catch me.”

Something in the air shifted, Ethan could see a small smile begin to play on Sera’s lips, he could feel her excitement growing as some primal urge began to fill her.

The game had already started.

“Now don’t get too excited, to make this fair, there’s a time limit. You have fifteen minutes to get the backpack, but if at the end of fifteen minutes I still have it, I win and keep everything.”

“What’s to stop me from taking it anyway?” Sera asks in a low voice, her eyes beginning to glow.

Ethan shrugs and pulls his mask over his face, despite her ruthless attitude, he knew she wouldn’t do that.

Sera lets out a low husky chuckle, “When does the game start?”

Ethan smiles behind the mask, “Now.”

Ethan throws a flash bomb at his feet and the roof is immediately engulfed with a blinding light forcing Sera to cover her eyes. With the mask protecting him from the flash, Ethan doesn’t waste a second bolts towards an open skylight behind him, nearing the opening; Ethan drops to the ground and in one fluid motion slides feet first through the open skylight down to the floor below. As his feet touch the floor Ethan drops and rolls to lessen the impact on his legs while keeping the momentum built up from the fall to continue running. A quick glimpse at his surrounding confirmed to Ethan that the third floor was just as he and Joe left it a few months back. The third floor currently looked like an office space, so it was full of cubicles filled with fake office equipment. The last time they used this place they were practicing getting around some new security systems, but to keep things interesting Joe decided to add a few booby traps of his own. Knowing that running would be useless as long as Sera could track him, Ethan purposely sets off the traps as he ran past. The room is immediately filled with smoke, flashing lights and a high-pitched alarm bell.

Ethan quickly ducks into one of the cubicles, ‘This should be enough to confuse her senses for a while and buy me some time.’ Ethan thinks to himself.

But those thoughts are quickly dispelled as Sera comes crashing down through the roof, having blasted her way down.

“Jesus Christ!” Ethan exclaims.

Ethan had expected her to follow him through the skylight, but apparently Sera was taking this game a lot more serious than him. The hole in the roof also provided extra ventilation causing most of the smoke in the room to dissipate. It had been less than a minute since they started, and Ethan was already regretting starting this game.

‘This was stupid idea.’ Ethan tells himself.

Sera’s eyes scan the room and quickly land on Ethan.

‘Yep, really stupid.’

On instinct Ethan activates his ability just as Sera launches herself toward him and smashes part of the cubicle. As her hand reaches towards him, Ethan is surprised by the fact that he could see her movements, but what surprised him even more was that his own body was keeping up, but only barely. Deciding to just count his blessing, Ethan continues to focus on Sera and dodging her attempts to grab him, moving from cubicle to cubicle as she destroys each one trying to grab him.

While dodging her hand Ethan manages to grab her arm and get behind her, pulling it back and kicking the back of her knee, causing her to drop down.

“You’ve been holding out on me.” Sera says in a surprised voice.

“Honestly, I’m just as surprised as you.” Ethan admits, slightly out of breath.

“Guess I’ll have to get serious then.” Sera states with a small smile.

Sera begins to slowly stand and turn around while pulling her arm back away from Ethan despite him trying to hold it with both hands.

“Oh, shit.”

Ethan had forgotten how much stronger Sera was then him, he quickly reaches into his pocket and takes out a small vial. Popping the cap of the off vial with his thumb; he pours its contents, a yellow powder, over Sera’s head just as she finished standing to her full height and turning around to face him. Ethan watches Sera’s eyes go wide as her body begins to freeze in place, the powder he poured over her was the exact same one she had used on him that morning.

“How did?”

Ethan lifts his mask and looks up at Sera, “Back at the hospital I asked Diane for a few things while you were resting.”

“That’s not-”

Sera’s protest is stopped when Ethan lifts himself up and gives her a quick kiss on the lips.

Pulling away Ethan can’t help but chuckle at Sera’s shocked expression, “You know what they say, all’s fair.” Ethan teases.

Sera’s expression turns serious as the white of her eyes go black and her irises begin to glow with startling intensity.

“You better start running beloved, because after tonight, you’re never escaping me again.” Sera states in a darkly seductive voice.

Ethan felt a chill run down his spine at Sera’s words, he could feel her desire, she wanted him and by God she was going to have him. He notices she was already regaining control of her body, faster than expected, his teasing had clearly set her off.

‘Okay, so teasing her was not a smart move.’ Ethan chides himself, as he runs towards the exit doors leading to the staircase behind him.

Ethan thinks back to the hospital when he had asked Diane for help, she had been confused by his request at first, but after hearing what he was planning she quickly got to work getting a few things ready for him. She had also warned him that the yellow powder wouldn’t be able to hold Sera for long and that it wouldn’t work on her a second time, so however he used it he had to make it count.

‘Damn, that’s one trump card already gone.’

Pushing past the exit door Ethan jumps the stairs leading down and lands with a small thud; he quickly rushes through the door to the second floor and closes it behind him. Leaning against the door Ethan takes a moment to consider his options, but quickly surmises he didn’t have any.

Ethan takes a deep breath and sighs, “Might as well go all in now.”

Ethan reaches back and takes out a small stack of papers from one of the side pockets, they were similar in size and shape to the paper Ashford used to soundproof the interrogation room, only the rune on the paper was different. Knowing that he was running out of time Ethan began to move toward the opposite end of the floor. Unlike the one above, this floor was just one long hallway with various rooms on either side. He wasn’t too worried about Sera busting down through the ceiling again, somehow, he just knew she wouldn’t do that again. As he hurries down the long hallway Ethan does as Diane had instructed and tosses the stack of papers into the air. Ethan looks back and watches as the papers flit unnaturally through the air separating into two groups. The first group of papers flit back down the hall from where he came and stick to the floor, walls, and ceiling; forming a circle. The second group of papers follow Ethan a bit further down before beginning to stick to the floor, walls, and ceiling as well, but in a seemingly random formation. The papers then quickly disappear, the sight of which causes Ethan to stop in surprise; using his ability Ethan could see the papers were still there, just invisible to the naked eye, each one emitting a faint glow he could only assume was magic.

“Will I ever get used to this?” Ethan asks himself.

‘Witches, werewolves, vampires, magic; is this my life now?’ Ethan contemplates, a part of him still in disbelief at just how crazy his life had gotten.

The sound of the door to the staircase being flung open breaks Ethan from his thoughts, Sera steps through and their eyes instantly meet. She had the look of a predator who had just spotted their prey, and even though he knew he was the prey in this situation, Ethan couldn’t deny the slight thrill that ran up his back.

Ethan lowers his mask back over his face, to hide the small smile growing on his lips.

Without a word Sera throws something towards Ethan, it hits ground and then bounces and rolls to a stop in front of him. Looking down at the item; Ethan sees that it’s some sort of seed, but it was overgrown like the size of a walnut. He moves to back away from it, but a dozen vines burst out from the seed and grab hold of his arms and legs. Ethan falls to the floor as he struggles to break free from the vines. Looking up he sees Sera smile as she begins to stalk toward him, but as she nears where the first set of papers had encircled the hallway she is suddenly knocked back by an invisible force.

“What the hell?” Sera blurts out, with a look of shock and confusion.

Ethan smiles and silently thanks Diane once again, the papers had seemingly formed some type of barrier and was now blocking Sera’s way. As he continues to struggle against the vines, Ethan remembers the dagger strapped to his back; pulling against the vines he’s able o get a hold of. Taking the blade out he manages to cut the vines holding his opposing hand, but even after being cut the vines regrow and grab hold of him once more.

As Ethan struggles with the vines Sera reapproaches the hallway and slowly extends her hand. The barrier once again pushes against her, but having anticipated it, Sera is able to hold her ground and pushes back. The barrier begins to crackle as Sera pushes against it, after a few moments the sound of glass breaking ring out as Sera’s hand breaks through the barrier.

Hearing the sound; Ethan looks over at Sera and the barrier and sees that he is running out of time. As Ethan continues to try and cut away at the vines, he closes his eyes and tries to calm his mind. After a few deep breathes Ethan opens his eyes, it had been a while since he had used his ability in full and not at all since its upgrade. It was strange, everything still looked the same yet, different, clearer. He could clearly see the magical energy emanating from the papers Diane had given him or more specifically the runes etched on them. The time dilation was more pronounced as well, unlike when he was dodging Sera’s attacks earlier, there was now a noticeable delay between his body and his thoughts. He imagined that from an outside perspective he would be seen as moving and reacting at an unnaturally high pace. Ethan decided to refer to this form of his ability as stage two and the easier one from before as stage one.

‘Now is not the time for this.’ Ethan chides himself, for getting caught up in his new abilities.

Giving himself a quick mental shake Ethan refocuses on the matter at hand, looking at the vines holding him, he could see now the flow of magic moving through them. He saw that the magic energy was coming from the seed and circulating into the vines, which was why they kept growing back even after he cut them. Still struggling Ethan lunges himself toward the seed and bring the knife down on it, but instead of crushing it like he hoped the seed bounced off. Looking at the seed again Ethan saw a rune flicker on top the seeds skin, Ethan brings the knife down on the seed again. As soon as the knife makes contact with the seed the rune on top once again activates, but this time Ethan holds the knife down. Through his ability Ethan could see sparks coming from the rune as it strained to keep itself intact, he could see how the silver in the dagger was wearing down and breaking through the rune. The vines tightened and pulled against him even harder, as if it knew it was in danger, but Ethan didn’t let up he continued to push the knife down even harder.

At the same time Sera manages to get her other hand through the break she had made and begin to rip through the barrier. Despite the strain, her face was calm and collected her eyes never wavering from Ethan, from her prize. With one more huff Sera rips the barrier blocking her path away. Seeing that Ethan was almost free she dashes toward him with even greater speed than before, even if there was another barrier, she would just crash through it like nothing.

Ethan looks up and sees Sera flitting towards him, even with his ability slowing things down Sera was moving quickly toward him. With a yell Ethan pushes down on the knife with all the strength he could muster; the rune finally gives way and the knife slices through the seed disrupting the flow of magic within it. The vines go limp just as Sera reaches out to grab Ethan, her hand in front of his face. At that moment the second set of papers activate, but instead of a barrier like before, a dozen wires shootout from the papers grabbing Sera’s arms and legs. Ethan rolls out of the way as Sera tries to grab him, but she only manages to grab and pull off his mask. The wires holding Sera continue to try and pull her back, but she pulls forward, lowering her body to give herself more leverage, bringing her and Ethan face to face once again.

Out of breath Ethan looks at his mask in Sera’s hand and then at Sera, “Not yet beloved, not yet.”

Ethan turns to make for the exit, but Sera tears the wires holding her arm out of the wall and grabs Ethan pulling him close and capturing his mouth with hers. The kiss was hard and unapologetic, and for a moment he was lost in her taste, in the feel of her tongue against his own. Ethan mentally kicks himself to snap out of it and tries to pull away but that only seemed to make Sera kiss him harder. Ethan’s knees began to shake and only then does Sera break the kiss, her hand still holding onto him. Sera looks into Ethan’s eyes, and he looks back mesmerized, the blackness surrounding her irises pulling him in, he found them beautiful.

Looking into her eyes with his ability Ethan couldn’t just feel the power behind them he could see it, and he realized that this game of his was only happening because she was allowing it. Because she was restraining herself to give him a chance, to show she respected him and his wishes. He saw that for her this had never about the files, it had always been about him, made evident by how quickly she was able to pull her arm free of the wires and grabbed him and not the bag. This was a reminder that she was the one in control here not him and he’d do well to remember that. Seeing the comprehension in Ethan’s eyes Sera lets go of him and waits, for a moment Ethan is confused, but then quickly realizes she was giving him a head start.

Without a second thought, Ethan runs for the floor exit, with only one thought racing through his mind as he does.

‘That was the sexiest thing I have ever experienced.’

Bursting through the exit door Ethan jumps the stairs leading down, he passes the door to the ground floor and instead heads straight to the basement. Time was almost up, he just had to hold out a little longer and he would win. He rushes through the basement door and takes in his surroundings, the basement was the smallest of all the floors, all it housed were two small storage rooms on either side and the apartment he had mentioned before. Ethan began to feel a small ache behind his eyes, he had pushed stage two of his ability to the limit, and it was taking its toll. He let his ability fade, and the ache behind his eyes quickly began to ease. As his thoughts began to resync with his body, he could feel the strain he had put on it.

“Ugh, this is really gonna hurt tomorrow.” Ethan grumbles to himself.

Knowing he was running out of time Ethan takes off the backpack, he knew the files didn’t matter anymore. He puts the bag in one of the storage rooms and purposely lets one of the straps peek out from beneath the door. He then goes into the storage room on the other side and gets his last remaining flash bomb ready.

Ethan goes over things in his mind, once Sera opens the door with the bag, he would toss out the flash bomb, once she’s blinded, he would run out grab her and use the dagger get her to admit defeat. The plan wasn’t perfect, they both knew he wouldn’t really hurt her, but this was no longer about that, this was about showing Sera he wouldn’t just bend to her will.

Ethan hears the basement door slam open, and he erases his presence as much as possible. For a long moment there was no sound, he could imagine Sera scanning the room with her eyes. Suddenly he hears the sound of a door being flung open, Sera had gone for the storage room he had placed the bag in like he’d hoped. Ethan cracks the door and tosses the flash bomb; he hears it goes off and rushes out the door toward Sera, but the moment h sees her he stops cold.

“Oh fuck.” Ethan mutters, surprised at the sight of Sera was wearing his mask.

Thanks to Ethan’s mask Sera was unaffected by the flash bomb, she immediately rushes towards him and knocks the dagger out of his hand. Ethan tries grapple Sera in response, but she counters all of his attempts with relative ease. Sera then goes on the offensive; Ethan tries his best to block her attacks using stage one of his ability like before, but it’s not enough and he found himself thrown to the ground multiple times.

She was toying with him now, showing him that she could have ended this little game of his much earlier. Annoyed by this; Ethan summons every last ounce of speed and strength he could muster and moves toward Sera. They begin to exchange blows and Sera seems taken aback by Ethan’s renewed vigor, to the point where Ethan is able to intercept Sera’s hand as it attempts to grab his collar and use it to toss Sera to the ground instead. This told Ethan something about Sera, her overconfidence drops her guard. This gives Ethan an idea, and he decides to do the one thing he never thought he would, purposely piss Sera off.

“Is that it beloved, all brawn and no skill?” Ethan taunts.

Sera slowly rises from the ground, he could feel her anger at his words, he then felt her presence grow smaller, the air around her no longer as suffocating. Ethan smiles, his provocation had had the desired effect, she was matching her strength to his. They both then move toward each other and once again begin to trade blows, and despite Sera matching her strength to his, Ethan was still getting pushed back. Sera skills were top notch, and she knew how to use their height difference to her advantage.

Honestly, Ethan wasn’t even surprised by Sera’s superior skill, in fact her being so strong made excited him for some reason, but he wasn’t giving up just yet. Putting his all into this last attempt Ethan manages to grab Sera’s arm and pull her in close allowing him to sweep her leg from underneath her. But Sera surprises Ethan by pulling him along with her to the ground, they roll around, each one trying to top the other. After one final struggle, Sera manages to straddle Ethan’s body and pin his wrists down with her hands, ending the game and cementing her victory.

Out of breath, Ethan looks up at Sera and sees her looking down at him, her breath was heavy but not because she was tired. Her eyes were wild with excitement, desire, and hunger, Sera rips the collar off Ethan’s shirt and begins to lower her mouth to his neck. But when her mouth was less than an inch away, she stops, as if catching herself. She begins to pull back, but Ethan puts his hand on the back of her head to stop her.

“No, don’t stop.” Ethan whispers. There’s a brief second of silence as Ethan turns into Sera’s ear. “Please.”

Ethan could feel a switch being flipped inside Sera’s head; he then let’s out a startled cry as Sera suddenly bites down onto his neck. The pain lasts only a moment and is quickly replaced by a feeling of overwhelming pleasure, more so than the first time she drank from him. Every draw she took brought them both closer and closer to the edge until finally with one last big pull they both go tumbling over, both letting out cries of pleasure.

Sera licks Ethan’s neck to help close the wound and pulls back, Ethan seeing past the stars in his eyes sees Sera looking down at him. He could see small streaks of his blood on the corners of her mouth and chin, but again it was her eyes that grabbed him. The whites of her eyes were still black, and her violet irises were still glowing, but there was something else, something primal in her eyes as she looked down at him.

“Mine.” Sera whispers in a husky tone.

With that one-word Ethan knew that his old life was truly over, that one word was a promise, a promise to both of them. Sera then leans down and gently takes his mouth into her own, as if to seal that promise with a kiss, a kiss that tasted of sweetness and blood.