Ferrahn was still angry about earlier that afternoon when Silren and everyone else decided to gang up on him. Just because he happened to upset the brat by stating the truth, they took the kid's side. It made him hiss with irritation everytime his mind went back to the incident. It had been small enough of a matter, but for some reason, it became the culmination of all the small little matters he let slide all this time. What really annoyed him was how he'd let himself snarl at Silren.
Finally, his control had snapped. He'd never meant for it to happen with an audience in attendance, but it'd happened. He couldn't decide how he should be feeling: relief that he finally upset Silren (oh, he knew he'd _really_ upset him) or a dreading numbness that it'd finally happened and things were really changing.
If only that damn brat had never come back. The whole thing would never have happened. It'd have happened sometime in the future, he granted, but when he wanted it to happen. At the moment, things weren't going his way and he did not like it at all.
Ferrahn snarled his way up the stairs and stopped at the landing. Kamahn looked at him coldly.
"What the fuck do you want, brat?" he snarled at the boy.
No, Kamahn didn't want anything, he was sure. He had just meant to gloom his way past him, but Ferrahn was making sure he didn't leave that easily. The brat deserved to pay for the mess he'd made happen.
The brat took up his challenge, stepping up to him, his face darker than usual. "I've had enough of you insulting me!"
Ferrahn snickered. "I'm glad you realised I was trying to insult you."
With a snarl, Kamahn grabbed him by the shoulders and lifted him up. Ferrahn sank his claws into Kamahn's wrists before the boy could throw him against the wall. Kamahn let go with a yell and Ferrahn landed gracefully on his feet. In a flash, he was up in the air, his claws aimed at Kamahn's face. The momentum of his attack made Kamahn fall on his back. Unable to get up, with the spitting and clawing cat on his chest, he used his hands to deflect the claws and try to push Ferrahn off. When that didn't help, he tried to grab the cat and haul him off, but Ferrahn was clawing and biting at his hands too sharply for him to hold on for long.
Ferrahn hands clamped around Kamahn's throat and Kamahn's eyes widened. They weren't only just fighting anymore. He pulled Ferrahn's hair and pulled both his ears off, but Ferrahn only laughed harshly and the hands around his windpipe tightened.
They weren't physically manifested in their bodies, but they were used to being aware that they had bodies; that if someone strangled them and their breath stopped long enough, they would black out. And so Kamahn did.
Ferrahn stared incomprehensibly at the blank face in front of him and after a tense minute, he relaxed his aching fingers. Breathing heavily, he smiled grimly. The damn kid. Too bad he couldn't really die. He kneeled on Kamahn's chest, waiting for Kamahn to regain himself.
Kamahn's hand shot out and before Ferrahn could react, the hand had wrapped itself tightly around his throat. Digging his claws into the boy's fingers was as ineffective as Kamahn's attempts to rip him bald.
"Let me go!" he snarled at the boy.
"_Nobody_ hurts Kamahn!" was the answering snarl in his mind.
The twin!
Ferrahn struggled harder, but Khamiel only laughed. It was just like Ferrahn to forget that when he was in his shell, he was so much smaller and weaker than Kamahn's shell. The amusement lasted only a second before Khamiel's face grew dark; Kamahn had grown soft, to let Ferrahn attack him and win so easily. Angry, he swung Ferrahn and smashed him against the wall.
"_Nobody_ hurts Kamahn!"
Khamiel finally stopped hitting him against the wall and threw him hard at it. Stunned, Ferrahn lay where he had fallen. Khamiel in Kamahn's shell stepped up to him and brought one foot down on him. "This will teach you."
"Kamahn?" a shocked voice travelled up from the stairs.
It was Silren. Khamiel snickered. Silren had no hold over him.
"Oh gods, Kamahn! What are you doing?!"
And that was the annoying Seph person who they depended on for their bodies. He stepped on Ferrahn harder; he didn't care very much for her either.
There was a duet of snarls and two small bodies jumped on him. Khamiel started and tried to shake Evien and Luthien off him.
"Oh my gods. Ferrahn, are you all right? Ferrahn?"
Seph could only stare as Shy ran at Kamahn with a hiss. Too easily, Khamiel kicked Shy aside, and the little imp hit the wall and sank onto the ground unconscious. Khamiel snarled as his hands curled around Evien's waist and he tried to pull him off his face. Luthien was there in a flash to try to claw Evien free.
"Kamahn! Stop it!"
"Silren, don't go near them!"
"Seph, what's happening? Why is Kamahn hurting everyone?" Razkil asked distressed. He was afraid and Errand was cowering in his arms.
"I don't know what's come over him!" How could she explain when she'd arrived on the scene with them? Seph looked at Ferrahn's still body and dread filled her. They couldn't die, but they could fade and disappear.
"Ferrahn? Are you all right?"
They all heard a faint hiss and relief surged through Seph. But the hiss didn't come from the shell on the ground.
Oh hell, Seph thought.
"I'm going to kill him!" Ferrahn snarled.
Reason with him, Seph screamed at herself. "I think we've had enough. Are you sure you didn't push Kamahn to this in the first place?"
"I'm talking about Khamiel!" Ferrahn hissed.
Oh hell, Seph thought again as she looked at Kamahn--Khamiel who was still fighting with the cat twins.
"Khamiel won't stop until he breaks them," a quiet whisper echoed across their minds.
"Not if I break him first!" Ferrahn snarled.
"Do something!" Errand shrieked.
"Hell," Seph muttered as she stepped up to Khamiel. Size had its advantages, but it didn't count for anything when the attacks became those of the mind.
"We'll shield you," Draven said quietly.
"Thanks," she muttered.
"Want me to stop them?" Brig grinned at her.
She shook her head. "I don't need you to make things worse."
"Trust me."
And that she didn't, so Seph reached out resolutely. "Draven, just hold him back if he decides to jump at me, okay?"
She didn't get a reply because a male voice barked across their minds and made them jump.
"ENOUGH!"
The seconds ticked by. And Seph let her hand drop to her side as she took note of the expression on Khamiel's face. There was something similar to fear in his expression.
"What's all this?" the male voice demanded.
She recognised the voice now. Feyn, Seph thought, visibly sagging with relief.
Khamiel fled Kamahn's shell and it went limp. Evien and Luthien jumped off it as it collapsed.
Feyn took Khamiel by the collar and shook him. The boy who had caused such terror had become a sullen child who didn't care to be chided.
"You're not supposed to be here," Feyn snapped at him.
Kamahn appeared by Khamiel's side and Khamiel struggled out of Feyn's grip to bury his face in his neck. They clutched each other tightly and Kamahn turned his head away from Feyn, towards Seph and the others.
Hate? Was that what his angry eyes were full of?
"Explain yourselves." Feyn barked.
"They were hurting Kamahn," Khamiel whispered.
"No one would have hurt Kamahn."
"Ferrahn strangled him!"
Ferrahn snarled, but Feyn ignored him, his eyes still on the two boys. "We're leaving _now_."
Just as quickly as he had appeared, Feyn left with the two boys, leaving everyone staring at nothing for a few moments.
"What had happened?" Errand ventured to ask in the stillness.
"The brat picked me up and was about to throw me so I defended myself," Ferrahn snarled.
"And Khamiel took over and decided to make mincemeat of him," Brig said with a laugh.
Ferrahn hissed. He had enough of voices he didn't know.
They watched as he went back into his shell and worked the kinks out of his joints.
"Well, I guess that's that," Seph said to fill in the silence.
Ferrahn stalked past them and Silren reached out to him. "Are you all right?"
"What do you care?" he snarled and headed downstairs. The twins followed him quietly, Luthien raising an eyebrow at Silren when he passed.
"What's happening?" Razkil asked.
Errand looked at Seph and she shook her head. "I don't know. I just don't know."
She picked up Kamahn's shell and limp Shy and they all went back downstairs.
The cats were not in the room and they all tried to make light of things. But there was a dark cloud in their minds and they tried not to look at the door everytime they thought someone was approaching.
It was only later when Feyn had dragged the truth out of Khamiel and Kamahn and had sent word of it that they knew why the fight had happened. But it didn't help make things any brighter for them.
There was still one worry in their minds: what was going happen now?
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