Chapter Text
"Your destiny has been decided."
Steve sighed, narrowing his eyes at the target he'd hung up on the wall, straightening his back and imagining the target was actually Darren's face- it helped improve his shot.
"You can't change what I have planned."
Phrases from a conversation Steve had hours ago were still repeating in his mind, like a broken record...over and over and over.
That man and his despicable voice, despicable pride, and his despicable control over everything.
Steve shook his head in an attempt to clear his thoughts, aiming for the target, arm outstretched. His eyes had focused and unfocused on the target about a hundred times by now, and he still hadn't fired. His mind wouldn't shut up. Finally getting tired of his own antics, Steve pressed his finger down on the trigger without further ado.
"Make your own destiny? You are a fool, Steve Leonard, and your foolishness will bring your demise."
He missed it.
The arrow didn't just not hit the bullseye, it completely missed the target and ended up going through the door, wedged in the wood right above the door knob.
Steve heard a gasp.
Somebody had been standing outside.
"Who's there?"
Silence ensued for a moment, before the knob turned slowly, making it obvious that whoever was on the other side was hesitant to enter.
As expected, Gannen stood at the doorway, mouth set in a hard line, studying Steve from where he stood.
At the sight of his mentor, Steve lowered his arrow-gun.
"What's with the look?"
"You...are still pondering about the things Mr. Tiny spoke of?" Gannen asked, entering the room and shutting the door behind him. Steve didn't reply immediately, he had pressed his lips together and was slowly pacing left and right, the arrow-gun dangling from his hands.
"Of course, how can I not? That mug in the boots gets on my damn nerves...." Steve mumbled, rubbing his temple with the free hand, "....and he's distracted me from my plans on torturing Darren. Why is it that he gets to decide my future? I am nobody's pawn!"
Gannen sighed, "Steve, haven't you tortured that boy enough? Might I remind you that you have just one more meeting left with the hunters, after which you must kill them. This...revenge has gone on for far too-"
Gannen lost his sentence mid-way, given the daggers Steve was glaring at him. They had discussed this before too, and it never ended quite peacefully. Steve's venomous hatred knew no boundaries at all, and moments such as these would act as reminders to Gannen about how important this petty revenge business was to his Lord.
"What I meant to ask was," Gannen quickly steered away from the subject of Darren, "doesn't the role of the Lord Of The Shadows suit your desire of endless power? Why would you not want to fulfil the prophecy?"
Steve stopped pacing, halting in front of the little window of the dusty room. His eyes searched for something pleasant to rest on, but there were only ruins of infrastructure and dirt and dust wherever he looked. Then it occurred to him.
With a faint smile playing on his lips, Steve let his eyes carry themselves up.
The skies were always pleasant.
He was glad Gannen couldn't see him. His mentor was quite perceptive, great at deciphering body language...which at times, Steve realised, was actually a nuisance. Because there were things he wished to hide from his mentor, plans in his head that he didn't wish to expose, knowing all too well that if he did, judgement would arise even in those seemingly never-judging eyes of Gannen Harst.
Steve didn't agree with the so-called prophecy that Tiny had bestowed upon them. Sure, the idea of having limitless power and authority was quite the seductress, but there was one matter, Steve felt, one matter of decision that should have been completely in his control. This matter of decision was what he found difficult to discuss with Gannen.
Abruptly turning around when his trance ended, Steve answered Gannen's inquiry with a voice that contrasted sharply with the hazy one that had been carving thoughts in his mind.
"I just don't like the fact that-that...football..is in charge of how my future turns out. Why does he act so smug, anyway? Someone needs to teach that bastard a lesson."
Gannen's brows drew together as his eyes narrowed ever so slightly, no doubt, Steve thought, trying to decode the strange behaviour the Vampaneze Lord had tried so hard to avoid. But he knew when to remain quiet and when to question, so he nodded slowly and moved on.
"Well, he is the one man you can absolutely not afford as an enemy, my Lord. It is better to just accept fate as it is."
Gannen thought he was handing out a warning that was fairly obvious and already known, so he didn't give much thought to how Steve would react to the statement, since it wasn't news. Rather, Gannen got distracted by a large crow that had settled upon the ledge outside the window.
He was so engulfed by the large size and the fine black feathers of the bird that he missed the dangerous glow that gleamed in Steve's eyes, the way the corners of the man's lips curled ever so slightly- and he definitely didn't hear the wheels that had begun to turn in Steve's chaotic mind.
"Oh, Gannen. You're a genius."
"There must be a summoning spell....or something."
"Boss, we should make a star on the floor and light some candles and sacrifice something!"
Steve turned so he could address the vampet, who had suggested the idea with an unimpressed grimace.
"Evanna isn't a demon, you nitwit." He spat, going back to staring at all the "research" that had been collected by his clan and was now sprawled across the large table in front of him.
His clan surrounded Steve, Gannen by his side, watching as he evaluated their information collecting skills.
Steve noted with agitation that they had picked out whatever book and printed out whatever paper that had seemed mythological, thus resulting in a large pile of things Steve now had to go through and filter by himself, since they were too stupid to do even basic, simple tasks.
Idiots.
Steve's adept eyes skimmed through the material, his hands tossing away books and papers that didn't interest him or have anything to do with his current goal. Steve paused when he saw that some genius had not even tried, actually picking out-
"Who the hell printed out a synopsis for Twilight!? I specifically asked you all to bring me materials about witches and how to contact them!!"
"What have I told you about saying that word?"
Everyone in the room flinched as a cold breeze bit through the air. The voice that had spoken sounded to each individual occupant of the chamber as if it had spoken right into their ears. The words from the phrase echoed, bouncing off the ceiling and the walls, reinforcing themselves into the minds of the stunned vampaneze and vampets.
The flames dancing on the candelabra chandelier shivered.
When Steve recovered, he turned around to face the door and when he saw nothing, his eyes began frantically searching the shadows that were cast upon the room.
For a moment, nothing happened, and just when Morgan had been about to suggest that the hideout was haunted, a shadow in one of the corners of the room moved, growing, until a beautiful woman appeared from within the shadow's core, hands on her hips, regarding Steve with a hard expression.
"Lady Evanna," Steve smirked, "what a pleasant surprise."
"We have been, for the entire day, trying to contact you, my Lady. It is good to know our efforts were not in vain." Gannen bowed slightly as the witch walked past him, circling the table as she regarded the material on it.
"Oh yes, I was here the whole time. I just didn't show myself because watching you lot try to contact me through Ouija boards and whatnot was rather amusing."
Steve's jaw dropped.
But Evanna didn't take much notice of his reaction, instead, something on the table caught her attention. Tilting her head slightly, her poker face transitioned into one of pure amusement as she reached for whatever interested her.
"Why.....is there a synopsis for Twilight?”
"Well, what is it? Why did you wish to speak to me?" Evanna asked when the final vampet left the chamber.
Steve looked up from where he sat, meeting the witch's knowing eyes with his signature smirk. He may have appeared rather confident and calm on the surface, but both he and Evanna knew he was anything but.
When he failed to answer, the witch raised a questioning brow. However, she was patient, and for some reason, something in the air that night- perhaps the chill, or the inkling of a brewing calamity - told her this was something she had to listen to.
Steve was, while she waited, thinking of how to go about what he had to say. Evanna noted how his eyes were tracing the lines in his palms, back and forth, back and forth. She could practically hear the mumbling voices inside his head, the many opinions, encouragements, warnings.
Evanna had her elbow resting on the table, chin on the back of her hand, with the other she drummed her fingers on the wooden table, her long nails clicking rhythmically against the hard surface.
Click. Clack. Click. Clack.
She watched Steve carefully, her eyes never leaving the man, so when there was a shift in his facial expression, she stopped. Her fingers hovered above the wood, her brows knitted together as she waited for the man to speak.
"I....had a proposal to make....."
"Are you insane!?"
"Why, yes! When did you start noticing?"
Evanna did not laugh, much to Steve's disappointment.
Suddenly, she cast her eyes to the left, then to the right. Steve thought he saw trepidation filling in them, but when he tried to look more carefully she had already squeezed them shut and was whispering what, to him, sounded like mumbo jumbo.
She stayed like that for a moment, eyes closed, hands bundled and pressed against her chest, breathing rapid. As if awaiting a tragedy to strike her at the very moment.
Steve studied her with curiosity.
The witch opened her eyes slowly, seeming to have calmed down.
"Uh....what did you just do?"
Steve's question was lost when Evanna slammed a hand onto the table, her waist elongated as she lurched over the table, looming over Steve, locking her frantic eyes with his.
"What you have just told me is not only rash, but also insane and impossible," she spoke slowly, in a hushed voice that was barely above a whisper, "Desmond Tiny is an immortal, you fool. You cannot kill him— and if he were to even catch a whiff of what you plan to do, he'd punish you in ways I can't even speak of. You'd wish you had never existed."
Steve stared up at her, shocked initially, but as she went on his face adopted a rather arrogant look- but still, he said nothing, for a while the witch and the vampaneze lord just stared at each other, speaking volumes without the need to utter a word.
And then Evanna sighed, sinking back into her seat and rubbing her temples.
"I know you tire, too," Evanna looked up when Steve began, squinting, "...of his control over everything."
Well, she had known Steve Leonard to be an intelligent man with keen eyes for observing...but for him to have picked up her thinning tolerance towards her cruel father? She had never expected that.
Especially because he had only been present three times with both Evanna and her father in the same place, and spoken to her only once....
"I know you do not agree with his final plan, the Lord of the Shadows. Or do you, given that you're just going to willingly let this happen?"
He was striking her sentiments, sly demon that he was. He didn't give a damn that the world was going to end or how it ended, he just needed the witch on his side, and how else to get her to pick a side without emotional blackmail?
"I....Of course I don't. But he decides the law. We are nothing in strength compared to him...." Evanna mumbled, before sharpening her voice, "And if you do not wish to follow his prophecy, why not make peace with the vampires? Why wage a war on Destiny instead?"
"Because I don't want peace!" Steve spat, catching himself before he disrespected the witch any further with the tone he was using, "I...want to kill them all. Get my revenge. But I don't want to kill Darren, not yet anyway. I want to make him beg for death. I want to make him watch as I rip the hearts out of everyone he loves!"
Evanna was silent, watching Steve with an unreadable expression. Steve took a moment to compose himself, calming down and burying the urge to cackle that was arising in him the more he thought of bloodshed.
"But I only have a limited number of times I can meet him, the next time we see each other will be the last chance we get before we have to fulfil our...destiny. I want to become the Lord of the Shadows. But I want him around when that happens."
When Steve finished, he stopped eyeing the liquid in his glass and looked up to see if he could catch the witch’s face contort with emotion.
It didn’t. The only time he had seen her display any feelings was a few minutes ago, when fear and shock had riddled her eyes.
“So, you wish to eliminate my father because you don’t accept what he’s written for you, and eliminating him is the only way you’re ensuring things work out as you have planned without any further interventions.”
Steve nodded, now wearing a smirk, as Evanna summarised his plan.
The witch shook her head.
“He’s too powerful for you. You cannot defeat him.”
“Maybe not alone....”
Evanna raised an eyebrow, to which Steve responded with a further suggestion.
"What if...there was to be an alliance?"
"Alliance? Between?" Evanna interrogated, despite already knowing what the madman was hinting at.
"Two clans, long ago divided due to difference in...feeding beliefs."
"Would they pair with you? After all you've done? Betraying Darren’s trust, then killing his mentor....is he even aware of Darius yet?” Evanna had expected some sort of hesitation from Steve when she reminded him of his deeds, but he didn’t seem to be bothered by the aide-memoire.
"No, he isn’t. But that's where your diplomacy skills come in, Evanna." Steve grinned.
"What makes you think I'd be willing to help you bring down my father, despite knowing of his strength?"
Silence.
A moment later, Steve spoke up, still grinning like a cheshire cat that knew all too well that it was right.
"The gleam in your eyes, darling."