Cassius had never been fond of anything, much less anyone. From the mont he was born, his heart had never beat for another’s sake. Affection, attachnt, love- these were foreign concepts to him. But if there was one exception, it was his mother.
She had been the only person he cared for, the only one who had mattered. She taught him not just how to survive but how to wield strength. How to command. And most importantly, before seeking to control others, he had first to master himself, his impulses, his emotions, his weaknesses.
Cassius had absorbed this lesson like scripture, holding it close, carving it into his very being.
Self-control was not just a skill; it was a weapon.
To control himself ant to rule over his own desires, his own fury and grief. It ant keeping his emotions locked behind an impenetrable wall, his expressions carefully crafted, his needs buried beneath sheer, unyielding willpower.
And so, he beca an enigma, a creature of calculated precision, untouched by sentint, untethered by longing. Because to feel was to be vulnerable.
And Cassius had no intention of ever being weak.
That was why this feeling, the slow, insidious burn of rage, felt so unnatural.
Cassius had spent a lifeti mastering control. Emotions were nothing more than distractions, fleeting impulses to be snuffed out before they could fester. And yet, this... this was different.
It coiled inside him like sothing wrongly placed, an irritation just beyond reach, like a blade slightly out of alignnt, off by a fraction, yet impossible to ignore.
It was the sa sickening sensation as watching sothing precious, sothing he had claid, be hurt, its ruin celebrated by filthy hands that had no right to touch it.
And now, hearing them declare Arabella dead, with such surety, such glee, it unsettled him in a way he could not na.
His birdie was alive. He knew this. He could hear her heartbeat, steady and strong. His mind, logical and detached, assured him that she was safe.
And yet.
The certainty in their voices gnawed at him, feeding a strange unease that churned beneath his skin. His fingers twitched. His jaw clenched. His entire body rejected the possibility they so boldly spoke into existence.
What is this feeling?
Cassius did not recognize it.
And that only made him angrier.
Was he upset?
Anxious?
"?" Cassius suddenly blurt out as he looked down on the hole of his body greeting him upward. He could see his nerves, bones, the fleshy wound that was scarlet with dripping blood. The gory scene wasn’t his first ti. Indeed, his heart had been pierced; this should cause so pain, but not this gnawing sensation in his intangible heart.
"I’m anxious?" He muttered, confused. Like soone who had just learned the existence of the Sun, he stood there, staring at his chest as it slowly grew back, the nerves connecting, building tissues and muscles, replacing the flesh until his flawless skin grew back.
"Kill. KILL HIM!" The cloaked woman demanded, and the girl who had worn Arabella’s body rushed forward. Her hand reached out, shooting with the speed of an arrow that had been released from a very tight string.
Cassius didn’t dodge it, instead, he grabbed it. With such ease did he pick the girl resembling Arabella to the sky and then down to the ground. The impact of the throw was enough to cause her back to break, blood spurting out of her mouth as if it had been squeezed out of her.
"No- how could this be..." said Arabella as she looked up at Cassius. She had clawed his skin, yet he was still alive. How?! There was potion laced around her fingernails! No vampires should remain as sane as he is now. There should be no way-
Seeing Cassius’s hands that bluntly pierced her stomach, Arabella’s eyes began to gleam with tears and fear. She looked at him, half shocked, half in fear.
"Don’t do this... please spare , Cassi-"
"You know?" Cassius sang, his smile gone from his lips, which made it all the more terrifying as they knew he was soone who would continue to smile even in the face of death earlier. "I liked it better when you wanted dead. That suits Arabella more. But pleading? She would never do that, don’t dirty her good image."
"S- S- S-Since when?" she whimpered. "How do you know that I’m not the real one?"
"I don’t know," he shrugged. "You’re simply not good at acting, I suppose."
To this, the skinwalker realized that, as she had feared, they had chosen the wrong opponent. Cassius’s power was still a question. What he is, what he was hiding, it’s not sothing that he could tell. But he didn’t have to use his unknown power when it ca to discerning whether it was the real Arabella or her, a skinwalker.
He simply had a keen instinct.
Blood spilled from her mouth as Cassius gouged what was inside. It’s as if he was reaching out to feel around his bag to search for sothing, except this ti, it was inside soone else’s stomach.
The skinwalker choked on a scream, her body convulsing as Cassius’s hand twisted inside her.
"No—... How could you do it to this face? Hm? Please!" she gasped, fingers clawing desperately at his wrist, trying to pry him away. But his grip was unwavering, his expression unreadable.
Cassius tilted his head, watching her struggle with detached curiosity. How pathetic.
"Please?" he echoed mockingly, his voice lilting with amusent. "Did you think that would work on ?" He let his fingers curl, pressing against sothing vital, sothing fragile. The skinwalker’s body spasd violently, a fresh gush of blood spilling past her lips.
"You’re a monster—" she sobbed, her words strangled by pain.
Cassius exhaled a soft chuckle. "Oh, now you realize?" His tone was almost disappointed. His fingers curled deeper.
The skinwalker’s mouth fell open in a silent scream.
"You should have never used her face," Cassius murmured, crimson eyes flashing. "That was your first mistake. And your last."
With a sharp jerk, he pulled his hand free.
The skinwalker let out a strangled, gurgling cry before her body went slack, her form already beginning to deteriorate, flesh unraveling into sothing wrong, sothing inhuman.
"Tsk. Thought there’s sothing different inside your body, but you’re just the sa as a human."
Cassius barely spared her a second glance. His bloodied hand flexed at his side before his attention shifted, slow and deliberate, toward the cloaked woman.
She took a step back.
"You’re next."
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