The Arrival

[Cadence Calloway]

With Etienne gone, Cadence suddenly found all eyes on her. Her face burned bright from embarrassment, and her body responded accordingly. The air around her heated up to an uncomfortable level as she rose to her feet and headed down stairs. She heard the whispers as she walked past the onlookers, and was grateful when the door closed behind her, shutting away the voices for the time being. She tried not to think about the rumors that were going to be flying after that night. She just hoped that whatever was said wouldn't be too bad. She ducked through commons, trying her best to go unnoticed as she slipped out the door. The second her feet hit the cold grass, she shivered. She'd been in such a rush to get out of the center of attention that she'd failed to grab a pair of shoes, or even a jacket. She took a deep breath and took off running. Maybe it was all the creepiness that had just happened with Etienne, and maybe it was making her more than a bit paranoid. Paranoia or not though, she was going to haul ass and get that talisman back around her neck. Pronto!

***********

Cadence had learned a few things since the incident on the girl's floor. She'd learned just what Etienne had been referring to when he mentioned Black Papa Langa, and about his beliefs. She'd been open to all of it...because in all the time she'd spent doing hero work, she'd seen all kinds of strange things. Demons and wizards; portals to other dimensions and alien strongholds; Nazis conspiring with conquerors in ancient times. Why shouldn't she believe the things that Etienne had said about the Loa were true? He'd yet to give her any reason as to why she shouldn't trust him.

She paused at the stairwell and regarded the poppet he'd made. Whether it could help her with the problems stemming from her past or not...she truly appreciated the thought behind the charm, despite how crude it may have looked. He'd said to treat it kindly. She could exactly offer it rum or anything, like he'd suggested...but...

"I'm not sure what it is I could that would be considered kindly...but...I guess thanks would be a good way to start," she quietly said to the poppet.

As she ascended the stairs, she was unaware of what was going on in the garden. In fact, she didn't hear anything about it until the next morning. She'd left the poppet on her bed, since squishing it into her school bag didn't seem like a nice thing to do. She said a quick goodbye to it, which drew a long stare from her roommate, and took off down the stairs to get to her English class.

As she passed through the gardens, she noticed a couple students and Nurse Jenkins huddled around something or someone off the path. Cadence lingered for a moment, debating whether to see what was going on or get on her way to class. Curiousity won out though, and she stepped off the path to see what was up. When she got close enough to see what they were all gathered around, she felt her stomach drop. It was Etienne...

[Etienne Mbane]

Again, it came unbidden. Something about Paragon city allowed the Loa to ride Etienne without an invitation. It was something he would have to figure out.

This one felt... wrong. He was filled with hunger, and his temper was short. A cold fear seeped into his heart as he started coming up with reasons why. He found himself getting out of bed and skulking down the hall. As he slipped through the door to the stairs leading out of building, he noticed the plants in the planter withering, their life being drained by his unwanted guest.

No good he thought to himself. He tried everything he learned to force the Loa out, but it held fast, refusing to give up the ride.

Three steps from the door, Etienne froze, catching a scent. He realized that for now, he was the rider, and whatever Loa had overtaken him, Etienne could do nothing but watch, and hope.

The scent was sweet, like fresh blood from a panicked rabbit that knew it was only a matter of time. Turning on the spot, he sniffed at the air. He relished the smell, the sweet nectar of fear, and guilt. Slipping into the shadows, he stalked back up the stairs, gliding through the door to the girls floor.

Pausing at each door to smell, he quickly found the source of the scent. Trying the door, he found it locked. A wicked grin spread on his face. Placing his hand on the door next to the knob, the wood began to rot at his touch. Soon, the area turned to dust. Catching the knob so it wouldn't make any noise, Etienne stalked inside.

Slipping into the bedroom where smell originated, he melted out of the shadow, licking his lips hungrily. He loomed over the red-haired girl asleep in her bed. Reaching out with one hand, he froze as her eyes snapped open.

[Cadence Calloway]

"Don' dey know what dey s'posed to be? Ain' dey got no omens?"

"I don't know about omens. I mean...some folks seem to just know what it is they're supposed to do. And the rest of us...the rest of us just sorta have to figure it out, and hopefully not screw up too much in the process.

"Dere always omens, 'moiselle. You dit ain' no White Man know how to read dem?"

"No...and if there was someone like that, then I don't remember them...."

"Maybe we should find out what dey were when you was..."

"S'okay. One of these days, maybe I'll figure it out."

"Why don' we just go down and find out? I mean it be de White Man way to keep papers, ain' it?"

"That...that would involve dealing with Crey. I don't know if I could deal with all of that again..."

"Dat up to you, 'moiselle. I figure it a better use of dese here powers we got den usin' dem to play games."

"I...I dunno."

"Hey, dere 'moiselle. No worries, right? We don' have to go if you ain' ready. You sure got time to meet your fear. Fear be de worst, you know. Bad juju..."

The conversation from just outside the powers room kept playing itself over and over in Cadence's head. It made sleep next to impossible...but eventually, she did manage to nod off. It was brief at best though. A dream, a nightmare that had left her alone for months, plagued her now. Voices...blinding white light...a sense of being surrounded by cold, sterile air and something held her restrained. Fear welled up in her, almost suffocating. Her eyes open suddenly as she jolted out of her nightmare. She wasn't fully awake, still in a panic from the dream, so her first reaction to the dark figure standing over her was to scream.

Cadence's roommate bolted upright, clutching at her heart, "Jesus Christ, what was that all-" Her words were cut off as she caught sight of Etienne, replaced by a startled yelp and a mad grab for covers. "What the HELL are you doing in here!?"

Cadence said nothing at first as she willed her heart rate to slow a bit. She stared at Etienne a moment...and something in the back of her mind screamed that something wasn't right. It was dark, and she didn't notice the changes in her friend as she sat up.

"Etienne? What are you doing here?" she asked as she reached over and turned on her bedside lamp.

She froze as she looked at her friend in the light. His eyes were completely black, his features extremely gaunt. His skin had become gray, and it withered and became later around his head. His lips looked as if they were rotting away, and his white teeth were bared. Elongated, fang like canines gleamed. Her gaze strayed to his hand. She breathed in sharply as she saw they were nothing but bone, with bits of flesh just hanging off it. Something was wrong...horribly wrong.

She got out from under the covers, slowly came to stand, keeping the bed between herself and the dark young man. Her amber shaded eyes briefly flicked over to the door...and saw it gone. Not open. Not broken down. It was just gone, leaving nothing but hinges. She looked back at Etienne, and swallowed hard, trying to push down the urge to panic...

"Etienne?" she asked again, her voice trembling just slightly.

[Etienne Mbane]

Etienne lunged forward, bounding over the bed in one swift fluid motion, his skeletal hands glowing with a sickly gray light. Cadence yelped and stepped to the side, cutting it so close that the taught flesh of one hand brushed against the loose sleeve of her night shirt. The fabric rotted under the influence of the Loa riding him, until there was huge hole in her sleeve. Cadence's roommate was already bolting for the door, and the young girl knew she had to get out too. She didn't know why Etienne was after her, but she had no room to maneuver. Not with her roommate's crap all over the floor!

She tripped as she swerved around her dark friend, her feet coming into contact with a stack of magazines that had been sitting in the floor. Panic, fear was rising in her, and her body was beginning to respond to her emotions as she picked herself up off the floor and made a mad dash for the door once more. Heat was pouring out from her body, bringing the temperature up in the room as a result. She felt a wind behind her, and she cast a glance over her shoulder to see what was happening.

With an oof, she ran into something solid, and turned her head to see what she'd just run into. Smiling down at her, fangs bared and eyes gleaming hungrily, Etienne stood over her. Cadence fell back, hitting the floor hard and started to back away from him. For some reason, it was difficult for her to override a deep seeded fear burning at her insides. She couldn't think...she couldn't breathe!

"Etienne, stop!" Cadence cried out, her fear more than evident as she tried to reach him.

He bared his fangs again and hissed at her, the sound forcing Cadence to relive every terrifying moment in her life. It all came in at her fast, too fast to process. Thanks to Crey, she couldn't remember the tortures they had put her through...but that didn't mean that those memories weren't buried deep within her psyche, and they all came to life in one big burst. Needles and probes driven into her skin more times than she could count. Storage tanks filled around her repeatedly, her body submerged into colored liquid, chilling her to the core and sapping her of the ability to fight back. Beaten, battered, bruised as her body was subjected to various types of attacks, to see just how much she could withstand. The heat began to build in the room. The magazines, papers, books that had been left laying around began to curl, and the ink began to blister. Her night clothes began to smoke, and holes began forming as the fabric ignited in places. She was wrapped in fear...and she couldn't stop what was happening now. Cadence hands clung to the side of her head as she screamed, smoke curling up from her body, filling the room with the acrid scent of it.

Etienne couldn't make his body stop. The Loa riding him hungered for living flesh; it had to have its hunger sated. He struggled for control, wresting the Loa in his mind's eye. His friend's fears only made the Loa stronger. Once again being pushed aside in his own body, Etienne coiled himself, ready to pounce again. His mind screamed for the spirit to stop. He didn't want to hurt her! Cadence's breathing came out in ragged sobs, and while she knew what was about to happen, she couldn't free herself from her own fears and nightmares to take action. From between clenched teeth, she could barely make out words, as if Etienne struggled to speak. They came out in a strained whisper.

"I... am sorry... 'moiselle..."

The stack of magazines she'd tripped over early ignited under the influence of the building heat, and the air shimmered. She was frozen in place, like a deer trapped in the headlights of an oncoming car. Etienne lunged at Cadence, his hands glowing, filling the room with the stench of rot and pestilence.

Cadence cringed, frozen in place with nothing left but the fear of what was to happen. Etienne pushed a stack of magazines aside, the papers blackening at his touch as the smoldered from the heat Cadence gave off in her terror. As her clothes started burning, her pendant fell out and hung from her neck.

Etienne reached out hungrily for Cadence's living flesh. As he loomed closer, he saw the pendant, a single loop of boar bristle tied to a leather thong. Screaming and clutching at his eyes, he collapsed to the floor as the fire alarms shrieked through the night air, accompanied by the spray of the sprinkler system.

[Etienne Mbane]

Cadence didn't move after Etienne collapsed. She didn't even look at him at first, and her hands remained clutched to the side of her head. The water from the sprinklers doused the small fires that had started inside the room, but the water that hit her body simply hissed and turned to steam. She was having difficulty reining her powers in. The Loa's influence no longer held her paralyzed with fear but the memories it had somehow dredged up had her in a state of shock. It seemed to take an eternity for her to finally cool down, and even then her skin was scalding hot to the touch. Over the din of the screaming fire alarm, she could hear thudding footsteps of people fleeing the dorms.

Eventually her eyes shifted to look Etienne's way.

Etienne lay stunned on the floor for several moments before his body began to spasm. Over the course of seconds, his skin darkened back to the rich cappuccino color, and his eyes regained their amber. He lay, breathing heavily, for another minute as he caught his breath. Whatever Loa had taken him, it escaped, warded off by the charm that Cadence wore around her neck. The room swam as the exhaustion set in, compounded by the other Loa begging Etienne to let them in, to protect them from whatever fled from him just moments before.

"You.." he paused to get another few breaths. "You alright, 'moiselle?"

Cadence brought her hands away from her head finally. She curled up a little as she shivered. "Fine...I think I'm fine," she replied quietly.

That wasn't the whole truth. Aside from being sore from when she fell, she was physically fine. Mentally though, she was still reeling. She shivered again, then asked cautiously, "What about you? Is it gone?"

Etienne sat up and nodded. "It gone, 'moiselle. I am so sorry. I couldn't control it, couldn't expel it. I didn't even invite de ting in. It was so strong... too strong. I sorry... I should have been stronger."

He stood up and looked around, making an effort to start putting the room back in order, ignoring the sprinklers. She eventually rose to her feet though, pulling what was left of her shirt together. She watched him move about the room, unsure of what to say to Etienne. In fact, neither of them said anything and an uneasy silence set in. After a few minutes he shook his head and turned to leave.

"I should have been stronger."

She couldn't just let him walk out without saying something. Before he could walk out, she said, "Etienne." She paused, trying to come up with something. Her nerves were shot...and she couldn't even begin to imagine what Etienne had to be feeling right now. "I'm sorry too," she continued...though she seemed pretty unsure at her choice of words, and not as reassuring as she wanted to sound.

Etienne only nodded in silence, his face stoic but for a single tear, hidden by the water from the fire control system, as he left for the office building to turn himself in.

[Etienne Mbane]

"OK, let me ask this again. You did what?"

Etienne sighed and began recounting the events of the evening again. Just as he had the last two times he explained it, he left out that the Loa had come in uninvited, really seized his body to use for its own desires. He told them that the fire alarms went off because the power the Loa gave him was able to start a fire, leaving out that Cadence was the ignition source. He confessed that all of this happened because he wasn't strong enough, that the omens at his birth made him too tempting and that if he hadn't let himself get into a position where the Loa would find him, it never would have happened.

Mr. Herrera shook his head. "I'll say one thing. I didn't ever expect a student to just come out and turn himself in before. Especially before we knew what was going on over there."

Etienne stood firm, but humble, and awaited the inevitable news that he was going home, or worse, to prison. But that was the White Man way. You paid for the crime, he thought assault, breaking and entering, he couldn't be sure. He was certain he'd be tabbed as a Villain from now on, which was expected. Everyone on the outside couldn't see his people for the good that they really were.

"I have to say, that you came here and turned yourself in speaks greatly to your intent. I mean, if you really wanted to hurt Ms. Calloway, I'm sure you would have avoided it."

Mr. Herrera shuffled some papers around, thinking. Etienne wasn't showing the signs of someone who was violent, or aggressive. In fact, since the boy had arrived at school, he'd always gone out of his way to be gentle, kind, compassionate. In short, he was one of the more promising students as far as having the spirit of a hero. In fact, Etienne behaved more like someone who had been violated that anything.

At the same time, Etienne broke into one of the girls' rooms and threatened one of the students. He claimed that whatever was inside him controlled him, and all he could do was watch. Of course, his powers came from possession, over which his file showed no control problems. The problem being, that he claimed he couldn't control it this time.

Etienne definitely had to be segregated from the student body, at least for a while to make sure whatever it was that had taken him for a ride wouldn't come back and try again. Fortunately, Westbrook had a room for that in the bunker. According to the Math teacher, he could use the one on one time to catch up in the class as well. And it would give Mr. Herrera time to investigate the matter.

Having made his decision, Mr. Herrera stood up. "Alright, Etienne. We have a room just for this kind of thing. Now, it isn't a jail cell, but you will be separated from the rest of the students for a while. We keep it in case a student loses control of their powers and needs to be kept safe while they learn. It's comfortable, and you'll be safe."

Etienne nodded and followed Mr. Herrera to the bunker. It was worse than he feared. He was being put in solitary.

[Etienne Mbane]

"Mr. Herrera, I presume. It's a pleasure to finally meet you. Can't hardly get a good view of someone from letters alone, at least not like face to face. Sorry it took me so long to get here, ice storms in the south, and all."

Mr. Herrera shook the hand of the priest in front of him. Truth be told, the fact that he arrived from New Orleans now meant he boarded an airplane within hours of receiving the letter Mr. Herrera sent.

"Father Michael Archangelus, I presume. Thank you for coming. We're having a difficult time trying to get a fix on your friend, and, while I am surprised you chose to come up in person, I'm sure your insight will be beneficial."

The priest nodded. "Sure, sure. Anything to help. And please, just Mike will do, or Mikey if you prefer."

Mike smiled at the headmaster, wrinkles gathering at his eyes, his face spotted with age. His hair had been defecting for years, but he maintained enough of it that it appeared more thin than balding. Herrera regarded the aging priest, noting his well starched collar and neatly pressed clothing. Herrera judged the man to be far more serious than his demeanor would indicate. Certainly, the wisdom in his eyes marked him as worthy of respect.

"So, Etienne allows himself to become possessed by spirits?"

The priest smiled. "A common misconception, although it would seem like that to an outsider."

"Explain."

After a moment to gather his thoughts, the priest replied, "First of, the Loa are more than just spirits. They are spiritual embodiments, personifications if you will, of the human condition. As such, Etienne can let them ride along with him. Share his body, if you will. The Loa learns more of humanity, giving it better understanding of humanity, and in exchange, it bolsters him, allowing him to accomplish things well outside the human norm. It's a partnership, really, and Etienne is always in the driver seat."

Herrera nodded. "Then can you explain what happened?"

"I have theories. It is likely what happened to Etienne was more along the lines of possession as you would think of it. Something more powerful than he has been prepared to deal with took over. The fact that it wasn't invited means that it's breaking the rules."

"Rules?"

"Certainly. Loa follow strict rules for existence. Normally, if they break the rules, they cease to exist. Some can break the rules on certain nights, or under certain circumstances."

Herrera nodded. "Do you think it will happen again? Can it be prevented?"

The aging priest nodded again. "Most assuredly. Of course, you are going to have to relax some of your rules on his behalf. Specifically, your rules about alcohol and tobacco. The Loa value these things above everything from the mortal world. He wouldn't be consuming them at all, merely offering them to the Loa to stand guard over him."

Herrera shook his head. "I can't give an exception to those rules."

"I guessed you would say that. However, if a staff member could keep it for him, and monitor their usage for religious purposes only, I'm certain you could find a way to allow it."

Herrera grimaced inwardly at the priest's emphasis of the word religious. In effect, he was being asked by a recognized member of a clergy to allow for the religious practice of one of his parishioners. The old man certainly was cagey.

"We'll see what we can do. In the mean time, if he is allowed to use these, can you assure me that it won't happen again?"

"I believe I can. But, Mr. Herrera, that is not the largest issue. No spirit other than Loa should be able to ride Etienne. More importantly, none of the Loa here are supposed to be as powerful as your letter indicated."

[Etienne Mbane]

"Are you sure I can't just...y'know...fly along like we do on patrols?" Cadence asked timidly.

"Relax, 'moiselle. Dis only going to hurt you if you fight me on it."

Etienne mixed the bone powder into the rum in his willow wood bowl. With his fingers, he first traced Cadence's hand bones on the backs of her hands, then painted his face in a skull.

"Explain what it is we're doing again? In laymen's terms?" She had asked before, and it had been explained. It wasn't that she hadn't understood the first explanation. It was more a little bit of stalling on her part. She wasn't going to back out at this point, but that didn't stop the anxiety she felt about this sidecar deal.

Etienne took both of Cadence's hands as he knelt on the floor in front of her. Her hands trembled a little as she sat on the edge of her bed. Her stomach fluttered with nerves as he glanced around the room, mumbling under his breath. Finally, he leaned in, his face close to hers. Like an inward sigh, he breathed in as she exhaled and she felt her vision blur as Etienne collapsed and started to convulse.

Cadence sat motionless, although every sense in her body told her she was twitching violently. Finally it passed, and a wave of vertigo rolled over her. It felt as though her own senses where in conflict with one another, couldn't decide which sensation was the real one. She started to panic, unable to process it all at once.

"Close your eyes, 'moiselle, or you going to go crazy," Etienne said gently.

She closed her eyes and her vision cleared, seeing herself sitting on the bed with her eyes closed.

"You riding sidecar, 'moiselle. You going to see what I see, feel what I feel, hear what I hear."

As the world through the ride came into focus, she started to ache. It was subtle at first, then the pain grew. It was as if a tangible hand of despair clutched at her heart. Every beat tried to force a gasp of pain through her lips.

"I thought you said this wouldn't hurt."

She felt herself smile, although she realized it was Etienne that actually smiled. "I sayed it ain' going to hurt you. What you feeling is de Loa, and de price of de ride."

Slowly, everything came into focus. Her senses... well, Etienne's senses sharpened. He glanced around the room, and everything came flooding in, light, heat, sound, he could even sense the blood flowing through Cadence's heart and veins. And every breath he took, he knew that no one was out there for him. No friends, no family, just the crushing despair of unwanted solitude.

It wasn't so much a personal solitude, but the loneliness of a minute speck in an ocean of stars, the vastness of nothingness. Just as Etienne had said, it was the essence of the human experience of being alone in the world.

As that sensation clarified in Cadence's mind, she realized that Etienne had left the building, and was racing through the streets, literally jumping from shadow to shadow, seeming to cease to exist wherever there was a pool of light in the night streets of Paragon. They were hunting, tracking, chasing, hiding, searching. More than all of this, they were living. Actually feeling what it was like to be human, from the perspective on something so alien, all it ever knew before was alone.
Slowly, everything came into focus. Her senses... well, Etienne's senses sharpened. He glanced around the room, and everything came flooding in, light, heat, sound, he could even sense the blood flowing through Cadence's heart and veins. And every breath he took, he knew that no one was out there for him. No friends, no family, just the crushing despair of unwanted solitude.

It wasn't so much a personal solitude, but the loneliness of a minute speck in an ocean of stars, the vastness of nothingness. Just as Etienne had said, it was the essence of the human experience of being alone in the world.

As that sensation clarified in Cadence's mind, she realized that Etienne had left the building, and was racing through the streets, literally jumping from shadow to shadow, seeming to cease to exist wherever there was a pool of light in the night streets of Paragon. They were hunting, tracking, chasing, hiding, searching. More than all of this, they were living. Actually feeling what it was like to be human, from the perspective on something so alien, all it ever knew before was alone.

[Etienne Mbane]

Etienne ached in all his joints. His muscles were sore, yet he pressed on. They had gotten a scent of bad juju here in King's Row, and he needed to find it, to find what had done all that to him, and to Cadence.

"You know, I can hear you think."

"Sorry, 'moiselle. I don' let folk run sidecar like dis too often."

"Is it like this every time? I mean, not with me here, but... the pain."

Etienne didn't answer. He continued on his hunt, finding the trail hot, compelling. A small voice in the back of his mind warned him that it was a trap. He sensed his quarry's discomfort with the urban environment, yet at the same time how quickly it adapted to it. The Loa let his vision penetrate the deep darkness of the alley, and showed him, slightly glowing on the ground, twisted, malformed footprints leading within.

He stalked up to the entrance, and from a nearby doorway, a Skull stepped out, knife in hand.

"Give me your money, and don't be... a... hero..."

The Skull tapered off as Etienne turned to face him. As if as an afterthought, he lashed out with the loneliness, letting the hopelessness rend into him like necrotic toxin. The Skull's eyes got wide as his face visibly paled at the sight of Etienne. His grip on his knife failed and it fell to the ground through his limp fingers. Frozen for a moment in fear, Etienne placed one finger on the Skull's forehead and whispered.

"Run."

The Skull took two steps backward, then turned and fled, running into a garbage can and a mailbox before he made it to the street. Etienne watched him go, until he turned a corner, then focused back on the alley.

From his first step inside the darkness, he smelled the foul corruption. Like a fouling of the marsh, where one misstep could sink you up to your eyebrows, or a stray spark could light the whole area on fire, he knew he had to move carefully.

The attack was swift and unexpected. It passed through him and cut into the Loa inside him itself, driving him to his knees. His stomach lurched, turning at the foulness that flooded that area. Always at the edge of his vision, the shadows danced and twitched, feinting and flicking out at him. Each time, he dodged, and hopped away, each time his mind screamed with the fear of the Loa and the twisting of the world he saw. He could see the apartness between the bricks of the building, the spaces in between that the mind tuned out. As he fought, each strike he suffered hammered home the futility of holding back an infinite tide, every wound inflicting a greater sense of darkness.

"I need light, 'moiselle."

Cadence had never had to think about how her powers worked. As much as she loathed them, calling on her abilities was like second nature to her. In fact, the only time she ever consciously thought about how to use them, it was in an effort to keep her power contained. Now...now she wasn't exactly sure how it was she was supposed to lend her powers to Etienne. Another feint, another dodge, and she could feel the strikes just as her friend could. She forced herself to focus, though sensations coming from Etienne made it difficult to do. Instead of trying to contain the fire, she sought to unleash it. That was all it took. Heat flared in Etienne's core, sent a scorching line from his center out to his limbs. It begged for release.

"There!"

Etienne picked his head up, suddenly feeling the rush of power. He didn't understand what it was or how it worked, but that didn't matter. Just like the power lent to him by the Loa, he knew how to use it. Standing up, his glanced around, noting everything in the alley made of metal. Building the heat within him, he thrust the energy out, the metal heating quickly until it glowed white hot. The metal, in turn, casted off brilliant light, forcing the darkness of the alley to cringe and wither. The Loa inside Etienne caught on, and started amplifying the power, allowing him to create a bright torch from the palm of his hand. Reeling, his quarry shrank back, and suddenly the foul stench of corruption vanished.

[Etienne Mbane]

Etienne hated to return to school with a Loa riding him, but he knew how dangerous, and potentially deadly releasing a sidecar could be too far from its host body, especially with someone as inexperienced as Cadence. So, he slipped from shadow to shadow, hoping not to get caught in the girls dorm again.

He managed to get to Cadence's room without notice, and he looked down at her apparently sleeping form.

"Is that really what I look like?"

"Dat what you look like to me when I being ridden, 'moiselle."

"Wait. So, I'm seeing myself through your eyes? Like I can see how you see me?"

Etienne made it a point not to let his vision linger on Cadence's body. "Right now, it just a husk."

She'd really never thought of herself as pretty. Sure, Kyle had told her so all the time. Others had commented on it too. Describing her body as just an empty vessel should've seemed cold. The thought behind the statement though...it wasn't cold at all.

Etienne bent over Cadence's body again, so his mouth was close to hers. As he had been practicing, he let the Loa and Cadence go very slowly, breathing out so his body didn't start convulsing. Like honey pouring out of a jar, Cadence's spirit left Etienne and flowed into her own body. The room faded out, until there was darkness.

Cadence opened her eyes to see the deep black fade out of Etienne's eyes. He bent over her, so their faces were close enough that they could feel each other's breath on their faces. Her heart hammered in her chest, and her stomach started doing nervous somersaults. She felt...warm. She'd never really noticed just how bright his eyes were...although after the ride, the amber shade was dulled a bit. For the first time in what felt like forever, the stabbing pain Cadence felt was gone. All that was left was the dull ache of exhaustion and irrational feeling of being abandoned, at being alone again...something she assumed had to do with the Loa.

The few moments could have been hours for all she knew. At some point though, Etienne pulled back, his hands brushing along her arm as he sank down to the floor with an exhausted sigh. Cadence pushed herself up, groaning just a little as she realized just how tired she felt all the sudden...like she hadn't slept in days.

"Is it gone then? Did we beat it?"

He looked up at her. "No, 'moiselle. Just scared it off a bit. It will be back. And more careful. I don' tink we going be able to track it down dat way again."

"What was it?"

Etienne shrugged. "I tink it might have been a Loa, but not from here. De Loa here are weak, soft. Dat one would be powerful back home. But it could be worse."

"Worse?"

"Just be careful, 'moiselle. And keep dat taleeman I gived you on. Never take it off."