When Holden interrupted her with a nudge, Izzy looked to him exasperatedly, expecting an earful about being the one to mention his issue, or another one of his complaints. Instead, she found him pointing.
“What’s what?” she asked to his question as her gaze followed his finger to the corner. “Oh,” she said when she noticed the familiar sight of the child.
She had not even realized he was in there, not even bothered to think about whether or not he would be. But Holden had, and even had the sense to ask the right question. Her gaze shifted to him, eyeing him without turning her head from the vampire child’s direction.
“Nothing you need to worry about,” she answered with a stiff shrug, glancing toward Riley as if hoping for a hand in giving an answer that would be more satisfactory to Holden. “Just… a ghost, of sorts. He can’t hurt you, even if he wanted to.”

Deleted

Izzy almost sighed in relief when Riley chimed in with a better explanation, watching Holden’s reaction until Riley mentioned the child having a name.
Her attention snapped to him. “Wait, what?”
Her head cocked at the concept of the child being ‘more stable as an aberration.’ She had not thought about that, that he might be ‘unstable’ without the power of a name. All the same, she could not help but snigger at the one Riley chose.
“Damien Riley,” she tried out the name and looked to the child’s corner, incapable of saying it without a small grin, wondering what, if anything, the child thought of it. It sounded so odd, so normal, referring to him by it, but naming the child was something she had refused to do, as if he really was little more than a pet, so Damien would have do.
Holden interrupted her contemplation, reminding her of why they had come there in the first place.
She rolled her eyes at Riley’s usual statement of only helping yourself, realizing she had forgotten to warn Holden about that. Holden's reaction made her shift her weight awkwardly, glancing between the two males.
When Riley gave another of his favorite sayings, she groaned lightly, resisting the urge to slap a palm to her forehead. She was suddenly quite glad she had Holden’s weapons safely tucked away in her backpack. But, of course, Riley was Riley. There was nothing she could do about that. At least he seemed to win Holden over enough to get his story out of him.
Izzy stayed standing, looking to the child—to Damien as Holden spoke. When he finished, she turned her head toward Riley expectantly.
She was not disappointed.
Her eyes widened slightly at the concept of the crab causing someone to ‘cease to exist.’ She glanced to Holden, wondering if that was still a possibility if what it had done was not reversed.
“Hey,” she interrupted at Holden’s skeptical tone, “it sounds about as plausible as a crab that sucked out your weight. But here we are. So.”
She listened silently, until Riley finished.
“Say what now?” Izzy stepped slightly away from Holden, turning to fully face him as she looked him over, then around him as if perhaps she would see some sort of spectral creature hovering about, now that its existence had been brought to light. But he looked the same as he had thirty seconds ago. “So, how does he get rid of it? Because I have the feeling a restraining order won’t work very well.”

Deleted

Izzy frowned at Riley’s pleasant, yet mocking laugh, then looked to Holden uncertainty, watching for any signs of hostility in him at the action. Not that she thought she could do much if he actually did brandish a knife or other weapon he had not handed over.
She listened and watched the two exchange words, glancing around once at the prospect of gods being everywhere.
“Huh?” She looked to Riley at her name, expecting him to use her in a mocking example, but she caught no such derision. Well, not exactly what happened, but… Her thought cut off when his voice changed to a near snarl. She shuddered. It had been so long since she had been on the receiving end of that, since she had first met him, she had forgotten how intimidating and exactly how infuriating he could be when he wanted.
She blinked in surprise at Holden’s reaction, and could only stare at him. He would stop, just like that? She shook her head lightly, the two leaving her time only to listen once more.
“He’ll help you help yourself,” she elaborated after Riley’s denial of helping Holden.
At Riley’s statement about it being the wrong time, her shoulders sunk with an inward groan at the thought of having to ride back with Holden only to return again, then smirked at Holden’s correct guess that Riley did not work for free.
When Riley looked to her, she automatically returned his gaze. Her brows rose in an unspoken, “What? Don’t bring me into this.”
She glared at him for a short second at the price he gave, before sighing; after all, vampires were messy business, while apparently, as he made it sound, the Crab was a bit more passive, less dangerous.
“Alright, Complainy McComplainerson,” Izzy said to Holden through a sigh once the two had come to a solid agreement. She stepped slowly toward the door. “Let’s get you home, shall we?”

Deleted

To Izzy’s relief, Holden said little on their way back from the decrepit school. She silently followed his directions when he gave them, occasionally giving a nod to show she had heard when he directed her well before a turn. She occasionally glanced back at him, trying to be as discrete about it as possible, both making sure he was there during longer silences and wondering what part about the evening consumed his thoughts.
When they at last came to a stop at a rundown apartment complex, she could not help but blink in surprise and give a gentle, “Huh” she did not think he would hear. But, alas, he apparently heard.
“Well… that… sucks,” she offered, not sure what to say to his story snippet. Instead, she busied herself with pulling her bike lock from her backpack and locking it up.
She followed him silently up the stairs to his rather modest apartment. She paused just inside, taking in the almost cramped space, then fully entered, closing the door behind her. She glanced toward Holden, who had neglected any usual courtesies when letting someone into your home before stalking off to the bathroom.
She stood there awkwardly for a moment, then, as the sound of the shower reached her, she sighed and opted to deposit her backpack on the couch. She opened it, pulled out a small plastic water bottle she usually kept in there when she did not forget it at home, and went to the kitchenette to fill it up.
She turned the water on, letting it run a couple moments on cold as she looked around the small place again. She was quite suddenly glad Riley had not asked a higher price for his assistance. If you used it right, a thousand dollars could go a fairly long way. Judging by the state of things, that was a long way she imagined could not be easy for Holden to part with.
She unscrewed the top of the bottle, quickly filled it up, and moseyed back to the couch.
Riley had expected Holden to be a ‘selfish little boy.’ For all she knew, he still was, just in a different way than he had thought, especially if the Crab had that consistent of a pattern. Wondering what had attracted the Crab, or what Holden had done to perhaps somehow provoke it, she took a swig from the bottle, screwed the cap back on, then placed it on the floor in front of the couch. She plopped down beside her bag and pulled out her phone.
While Holden may not have anyone he needed to report to, she did. She sent a quick text to her parents, telling them she was going to study with a friend, so would be home rather late, if that was okay by them. Replacing the phone, she stretched, then rested her arms on the back of the couch and leaned her head back. She closed her eyes, listening to the splash of the running water and hoping Holden would not take much longer in his shower.

Deleted

Thankfully, Holden did not take long. After unintentionally getting the opportunity to take in his bare-chested appearance, her eyes widened slightly.
“Oh!” She looked away as she grabbed her water bottle, then stood and turned from him. Seeing her brothers walk around in a towel was one thing, but Holden was another.
She shrugged at his question, and cleared her throat awkwardly. “No idea. Didn’t even think about that. Maybe pick the lightest colored ones you have, just in case?”
When, at last, he said she could turn around, she did so. Regrettably, his version of being covered enough for his present company involved just a pair of boxer shorts, and she spun back around.
In the silence that followed, broken only by the sounds of him rummaging through the drawers and the gentle swish of him changing out repeatedly, she fidgeted with her water bottle, wishing he would hurry up.
At Trevor’s name, she turned her head just far enough to make out some of Holden’s movements in her peripheral vision.
She blinked at his question. “What? No. Well, okay. I did,” she amended, looking down to the bottle as she turned it. She shook her head. “But not anymore. He’s just a friend who’s helping me with school. Is that the rumor that’s going around about us, or something?”
Maybe she really should start listening to the rumors that plagued the school more often.

Deleted

“Ah.” Izzy nodded upward at how Holden had come to his conclusion of her and Trevor. Makes sense.
She sat on the arm of the couch, careful to keep herself angled so Holden remained out of her view.
Her brows furrowed at his next question. She had not thought about that, about the possibility that he may have a crush on her.
Is something like that even possible? she wondered, trying to think of any occasions when he may have shown any signs of such an affection.
After a moment, she shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. At least, not that I’ve noticed. We… went through some crazy stuff together this summer. He’s just trying to be nice, I think. Or maybe he feels obligated or something.” She shrugged.

Deleted

Izzy glanced to Holden’s most recent wardrobe discard as it slipped from the edge of the bed to the floor fairly near her. Her fingers drummed against her bottle, one after the other in no particular rhythm.
She had to take a moment before answering his next question.
“Yeah,” she nodded. “But Trevor's situation was a bit different from yours or mine, as far as I can tell. Riley pushed himself to his limits doing everything he could. Helped me help him in the end, and… took care of the aftermath.” She suppressed a shudder at the blurry memory of that night, an arm draping over her waist.
She quickly returned her thoughts to Holden and the situation at hand: Holden’s wariness of Riley.
How many fakes has he gone to be this suspicious? she wondered. But, then again, ‘suspicious’ was putting the whole situation lightly from the perspective of an outsider. Riley had prevented her from getting slaughtered the first time she met him, which had been proof enough for her to at least open that door, but Holden had no such first encounter.
“Riley’s for real, Holden. Obnoxious at times and definitely not without his quirks,” she added with a slightly exasperated tone as she glanced up toward the ceiling, “but, at the end of the day, he's always come through. He wouldn’t have agreed to anything if he didn’t think he could do it. I’ve seen him do what I thought was impossible. Can’t think of anyone else I’d rather have on my side when things get hairy or crazy-strange.”
She sighed, turning her water bottle over in her hands again.
“Look.” She dared a glance toward him, her shoulder blocking part of her view. “I know you have no reason to take my word for it, but I swear. Riley’s legit. There’s nothing in it for me to lie about this.”

Deleted

Realizing Holden had, at last, gotten fully dressed, Izzy shifted on the arm of the couch so she better faced him as he spoke.
She could not help but smirk as he finished. “Welcome to my world. I'll admit, though, most of those didn’t occur thanks just to happenstance. And who knows? Maybe you slipping was more than just coincidence. No idea how, but I wouldn’t rule that out quite yet.”
With the batteries in the flashlight she usually kept strapped to her bike dead, the ride to the school was a dark one. The entire way, between concentrating on not sending them both flying over the handlebars, she kept thinking about that concept of coincidence; of all times for Holden to have stumbled and fallen, it was when she, of all people, was right behind him. Could Riley or even someone—or something—else have orchestrated that? Or had it, in fact, been just a well-timed act of fate? She had no way to tell. Not yet, at least.
When Riley met them at the door, Izzy could not help but gawk at how different he looked. At first, she was unsure if it even was Riley. As the man addressed Holden, she glanced between the two, Holden in his clean clothes and Riley in his vestments. She suddenly felt rather underdressed.
“Uh,” she began, following Riley to the stairs, “I wasn’t supposed to go home and change, too, right? Or does this mean I’ll have to wait outside or something?”
She hoped the answer was ‘no.’ Whatever the Crab was to warrant such dress, she wanted to see what Riley planned on doing, and what Holden had to do in turn.

Deleted

Izzy exhaled, her mouth pursing to the side at Riley’s uncertain answer. As unpromising as it was, her shoulder rose a fraction in a shrug. ‘Probably’ was good enough for her curiosity. Placing a thumb under a strap of her backpack, which she had taken with her, just in case, she looked down to the stairs.
Noticing Riley’s footwear as his sandaled feet slipped out from beneath the robe, she just managed to suppress a snigger. She glanced up to him, wondering how much of this was just a game for him, if he had put on his priestly garments just for show, or if they were actually required. Perhaps he really had had a hand in all of this.
“Really?” She looked at him, surprised at his chosen study, meeting his gaze when he looked back at her and Holden. “No!” she exclaimed with an airy, overexaggerated sense of shock, a grin pulling at her lips as she made a tisking sound and shook her head. “Their loss.”
When Riley led them into one of the classrooms, Izzy stopped just inside the doorway.
“Whoa.” She looked around at the setup Riley had prepared, shifting her gaze from the cross to the fetishes and talismans on the floor, some casting long shadows that danced to the silent music of the candlelight.
It all looked rather… mysterious.
Her attention drew to the corner as Riley downed the wine. She took the cup he offered her a bit more tentatively than Holden. She swished the contents around as Holden voiced her own thought about being underaged, and shared his glance at Riley’s response.
As Holden drank his, Izzy took a little more than a cautious sip of hers. She tried to hide a cough at the slight sensation somewhere between a burn and a tingle of the alcohol that accompanied it down. Trying to make it sound like she was just clearing her throat, she looked into the cup as if its contents had deeply offended her.
“So,” she began as Holden handed over his drained cup, “what’s this ‘ritual,’ then? What’s he,” she jerked her head toward Holden, “supposed to do? And where should I be so I don’t get in the way?” She glanced around the room, seeking out the best possible spot to potentially not get mixed up in or ruin anything, while being capable of still seeing everything there would be to see.

Deleted

Izzy’s brows rose at Riley’s answer, her expression silently asking, ‘Are you serious?’
“‘Hope for the best,’” she injected as he scratched at his chin. “I think I’m starting to see a trend here in dealing with aberrations.”
When he went on to what he needed her for, she hesitated a heartbeat, then nodded. Though not ecstatic at the idea of potentially going against something powerful enough to, at the least, gain the title of a god, or to test exactly how immortal her body was, she saw his point.
When Riley went back to his preparations, she moved from Holden to place her cup, still with most of its wine, outside the circle of candles, careful to avoid disrupting the arrangement of charms. If she did have to protect him, she wanted her hands free.
She returned quickly to Holden’s side as Riley came to them with his salt. Wondering where he had stored everything, she watched him curiously as he lit the incense, smoke spiraling into the air and filling the room with its strong odor. It made her sneeze just before Holden coughed.
She glanced to Holden, then did a double take. He did not look like he was doing too well. She wanted to ask if he was okay, but talking now did not feel appropriate. Instead, she shot him more frequent looks as Riley continued swinging his censer around the room, filling the space with a light haze.
When at last Riley spoke, Izzy blinked in surprise and quickly looked the room over, searching for the Heavy Crab. But she saw nothing. Felt nothing unusual. How he knew the Crab was there, was anyone’s guess.
All the same, she lowered her head and looked sideways at Holden, worried about how he would react to the lack of an obvious presence, expecting him to go on a tangent about Riley being a quack.

Deleted