The back of a man’s head slammed against the counter of the bar in the Second Circle, brought down with force by Serafina’s delicate hand. While the goddess was rather small in stature, her strength exceeded far beyond what would be expected by her appearance. When the man’s head connected with the counter, he let out an agonizing grunt, sputtering slightly. A small trickle of blood seeped out of the corner of his mouth, pooling onto the counter where his cheek was squished down. The other patrons at the bar had backed away, along with Jasuin, the bartender that happened to be on duty at the time. It was as if they knew that this was a situation that was going to play itself out – which was certainly the case, as they had seen this happen more than once.

The man in question had tried to get more than his fair share with one of the working girls at the Second Circle. This was a very steadfast rule at the establishment. The girls only did what was paid for, unless Serafina instructed them otherwise, if it was special circumstance. Not this time, however… and Serafina had been in a mood to begin with.

”You get what you pay for, and your time was up,” she said, grasping her fingers into the back of the man’s hair and pulling him back up. From the appearance of the side of his face, it was clear that his cheek bone had been shattered when Serafina had smashed him down onto the countertop – perhaps some damage had been done to his jaw as well. ”We don’t take kindly to thieves,” she added, releasing his hair and tilting her head to one side. ”So you can either pay for you extended service, or I can exact payment in some other method. Your choice,” she said, her eyes slightly narrowing.

The man, rather apparently, didn’t realize who he was dealing with. There were the odd patrons who came and went that weren’t from the area who didn’t realize who the proprietor of the Second Circle was. Rarely did they cause a problem, but it was quickly rectified when they did. This man, however, chose to spit directly at Serafina, the gob of saliva hitting her directly on the cheek. ”Fuck you, ye’ greedy bitch,” he seethed.

The bar fell completely silent. Serafina winced slightly as the spit connected with her face. Jasuin moved quickly, at an inhuman speed, handing her a rag from the bar, which she slowly wiped her face off with. The man turned to leave, thinking he had gotten away with it – but he thought very, very wrong.

With ethereal speed, Serafina pounced, taking the man to the ground, her fangs out. As the man fell back, he twisted and landed on his back. He had unsheathed a dagger as he had turned to leave, perhaps expecting a fight, and plunged it into Serafina’s chest, directly beneath the center of her bosom, as they landed. She let out a shriek of pain and annoyance coupled together, and backed off him. She pulled the dagger to the side and hissed, her fangs showing. ”Such a terrible, terrible mistake,” she seethed.

From the bar, Jasuin leaned his head around the corner into the back office, knowing that Cassandra was back there. ”Hey Cassandra, if you’re hungry, looks like dinner’s about to be served!” he called with a grin on his face, knowing full well that Serafina would enjoy it immensely if her newest protégé were to join in the fight.

Things had been going far better in the last little while since her newest changing Cassandra had been feeling far stronger than before. If you had asked her over a year ago what she expected in her life she would have told you she thought of getting married, having kids and dying of old age in the future. If you had told she would be half vampire and half werewolf, she would have laughed at the idea. But that is what had happened.

Now she was employed at the Second Circle by her sire, Serafina, Goddess of Death and Debauchery, two things that Cassandra, a farm girl before all of this, was getting well acquainted with as time went on. But she liked it, far more than she would have thought she did. Maybe that was the vaewolf blood running through her veins talking, but causing death no longer bothered her as much as it used to, more so since her first kills as a wolf. And the debauchery thing? Well, before becoming a lycan initially Cassandra had only been with a man twice before, since turning to a lycan and then vaewolf, she had been with a few more males, mostly it had been Jasuin, her fellow bartender. But she had been with her share of females, never thinking while she was a human that she was into other women, but, she was, very much so.

Cass lifted the keg up like it did weigh as much as it did, making it look easy, as a little bark sounded near her feet. ”Yes, yes, I haven’t forgot your supper.” She smiled down to the dusk wolf puppy wagging his little tail looking up at her, she really needed a name for him. She set the keg down in its place, having replaced the empty one, when Jasuin poked his head around the corner and informed her of the impending fight in the bar. Cass grinned. ”I could use a snack.” She replied, but before she went out to the front she quickly got the wolf puppy some dinner of his own.

She checked that she had her daggers on her, hidden on her back so they were not visible to the clientele, as she stepped into the main bar room. There was Serafina as she dragged the dagger out of her and dropped it, the guy she had tackled to the ground and had stabbed her getting to his feet. As he did, two other patrons stood and drew daggers of their own as they moved towards Serafina slowly. Cassandra glanced to Jasuin who sighed and nodded, ya, those two had come in with the one Serafina was dealing with.

They did not get far before Cassandra moved in a flash of her own, two of her daggers, of which she carried a lot of hidden all over her, streaked through the air. Both men yelped in pain and dropped their blades as Cassandra’s feather daggers cut into their hands, not enough to disable their hands, but enough to surprise them and drop their weapons. They both turned as Cassandra walked forward with a grin, her red hair tied back in a tail. ”Now now, stabbing a woman in the back? What kind of men are you?” She smiled as she cracked her knuckles. ”Tell you what; pick up your blades and I’ll give you both a chance to stab me together, sound fair?” They really had no idea what kind of situation they had walked into.

They hesitated before they both picked up their daggers and Cassandra’s, that was fine. They looked to each other before they started to come forward. Cass looked to the gathered crowd of patrons, more than a few knowing exactly what was about to happen; dinner and a show.

Jasuin smirked as Cassandra positively reacted to his invitation of sorts. He knew that the wolf in her wouldn’t allow her to resist a fight, but moreso that she wouldn’t pass up the chance to do a favor for Serafina, even if the goddess didn’t necessarily need the help.

Serafina, on the other hand, didn’t immediately notice that Cassandra had joined the fray. She was too busy closing the distance on the man who had stabbed her in the chest. The wound was already starting to close, but the fabric of her corset did not close up. Her healing flesh could be seen beneath it.

The man looked absolutely terrified, as though he was beginning to realize just how big of a mistake he had made in choosing to attack Serafina. It seemed like perhaps her actual identity was beginning to dawn on him. Of course, everyone heard the ‘rumors’ about who the proprietor of the Second Circle was – it was just that only some decided to ignore it and pass it off as fiction, when it was actually the truth.

The man couldn’t move fast enough to fully get away from Serafina, though he got a bit more distance between them as Serafina turned her attention to Cassandra for a brief moment. ”Welcome to the party,” she said with a sarcastic tone, before turning her attention back to the man that had assaulted her. She caught sight of the two other patrons who had drawn steel, and could also see that Cassandra was well on her way to begin dealing with them. With the vaewolf powers she had been granted, she knew Cassandra would have no trouble dispatching ten of these men – two would be something she could damn near do with her eyes closed. The thought brought a smirk to Serafina’s lips.

Serafina turned her attention back to the attacker, and before he could back off any further, she pounced upon him. A few of the patrons who had gathered around to watch made some remarks, some clapping, some whistling… it was clear that they were receiving a good amount of enjoyment out of the so-called show that was taking place.

When the goddess had the man pinned to the floor, she snarled at him, giving him a deviant smile. ”All you would have had to do is respect our rules and follow them,” she said, and shrugged softly as she held him down, feeling him struggle against her. He opened his mouth to say something in reply, but was cut off as Serafina brought her jaw to his throat with lightning speed, tearing away a large portion of his flesh. Blood began to spurt out of the wound and Serafina spat the chunk of flesh to the ground. She bent down to the gaping hole in the man’s neck and lapped at it hungrily, much to the amusement of the crowd. After a few minutes, the man was completely and utterly deceased, and Serafina stood, wiping at the blood smeared around her lips.

She turned her attention back to Cassandra, curious as to what kind of play the new vaewolf would make as she took on multiple attackers. Of course, she would be ready at a moment’s notice to intervene, but she had a feeling she wouldn’t need to – until the celebratory party they would have afterwards, if one could call it that.

”Thank you for the invitation.” Cassandra replied back with a playful grin on her lips as she turned her attention back to the two armed men moving towards her. The one on the left took a swipe at her and she dipped back just out of range of the dagger before side stepping a thrust from the other man. In that quick opening Cassandra rammed an elbow into the one man’s chest and the one that had stabbed at her she slapped her dagger out of his hand, it clattered to the floor a few feet away.

”Come on, do better.” She teased as the man with two daggers rushed her again, flailing the daggers wildly as he did. Cassandra dipped and ducked out of the way of the blades until she was able to grab his wrists at the same time and twist them hard in a way they were not meant to be bent. The man groaned in pain as Cassandra reared back and then crashed her head against his, he went sprawling backwards as blood gushed from a now broke nose as the two blades felt to the floor. Or they would have as Cassandra recalled the one feather dagger of hers back to her right hand.

As she caught it she turned and ducked back away from the other man’s attempted stab at her side. She then closed the distance again and used her dagger to slash hard enough at his wrist to almost cut his hand off and he screamed in pain. Seeing this the man with the broken nose collected himself and charged Cassandra, rage in his eyes replacing the pain from his nose.

He dove at her trying to knock her to the ground and while he was larger, Cassandra was multiple times stronger despite her looks. His shoulder collided with her stomach and her only reaction was to take a step back before locking her arms around his neck. ”That was very stupid.” She commented and saw that Serafina was finished with her own fun. With a grin Cassandra gave the man a powerful shot the kidney stunning him long enough for her to pick him up over her head. She then let go and dropped him on the ground behind her with a loud thud and a grunt of pain. She was loving the new strength she had a vaewolf!

Cassandra stepped forward and grabbed the guy who she had just dropped on his face and pulled him up. She opened her mouth wide and clamped down on his throat, while at the same time she had her booted foot on the other man’s chest keeping him pinned and forced to watch as Cassandra drained his friend dry. When she was finished Cass made sure to rip her fangs out and take some of his throat with them as to prevent him from turning, just killing him instead.

Now with a face covered in blood Cassandra dropped the corpse, she’d deal with them later, and reached down to the whimpering man who looked like he was about to pass out from fear and blood loss. She grabbed him by the collar and dragged him to his feet and stared at him as he blubbered incoherently. ”Pathetic.” She sighed and turned to face Serafina, ignoring the crowd around them. ”Want to share?” Her eyes were wide, yellow and wild, she was enjoying this, very much, perhaps too much. She was in control but still being a young vaewolf there were small spurts of control issues here and there as she learned to temper herself and her emotions when they ran high.