FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Nodrog walked out to a three quarter ton truck Sherman had gotten him from the security motor pool. It was mainly for off property excursions like this, and had been slightly modified by Jim and Kenny for him. They cut the driver's seat so he had more room for his thick dragon tail and changed the seat belt shoulder straps mounting location. The truck had stiffer spring on the driver's side to keep it sitting level despite his weight. While it was flat green, it was void of company markings.

He waved to Alice as she motored past in a snow plow. Scrapping ice was rather simple when you can just make it go away with magic. A stop at the gate to check out and he was on his way to meet with Marko's close friend. Too some it was a rather frigid ten degrees with the wind chill making it feel like minus ten. Nodrog only had enough layers on so he would not draw too much attention to himself.

The address Marko had given him, took him to the north side of town. To a gated community of rather large and expensive homes. His badge actually allowed him into the closed off to the public housing development. The pair manning the guard hut seemed rather upset they had to let him in. Nodrog filed that in the back of his mind, in case they disliked letting him in, or because they disliked those inside.

All of the driveways and streets had been cleared of the overnight snow fall. Everything was neat and well taken care of, almost to the point of being too perfect. He pulled into the driveway and put the truck in park. This house set up against a hill and the back fence was the same fence for the outside perimeter of the development. While a ten foot high fence would keep people out, it was not impossible to climb over.

Nodrog shut the truck off and got out. Marko's friends had four children... Young adults since the youngest was missing and he was nineteen. Just before ringing the door bell, he heard part of an argument. Seems all is not well in the land of the prosperous.

A man with salt and pepper hair answered the door. By Nodrog's watch it was exactly eight o'clock. "Can I help you?"

"Mr. Tracy, I am Nodrog. Mr. October asked if I would lend you my assistance in finding your son." Nodrog said extending his sixth sense past the man and into the house. He already knew all of their names, and could tell the argument was between his wife and daughter.

Mr. Tracy glanced at his watch. "I did not realize it was that time already. Please come in, and call me Richard."

Nodrog stepped inside and pulled his coat off as Richard closed the door. Everything inside was clean and tidy. It was sparsely decorated, and in the living room there were no recent photographs of the family. "I am sure you have answered most of the questions I am going to ask before. I hope you understand."

"Of course." Richard said and nervously looked at Nodrog. "You aren't human, are you?"

"That is correct, I am neither human or alien." Nodrog said. The two of them turned to look at his daughter Rebecca, and wife Marilyn. They were all human, and Nodrog noted their unease along with the guards in that this was a development for only humans. Anthros and hybrids were not allowed in, he being the only exception to the rule.

"You're one of those filthy anthros." Marilyn said coldly.

Nodrog chuckled. "That would mean I was partly human, which is incorrect. Because there is nothing human about me at all."

"Then what are you? A demon." Rebecca asked.

"No. I am a dragon, specifically an earth elemental dragon. Surely you do not think of Mr. October that way, Marilyn. After all he did ask me to find your son." Nodrog said and let his magic presence spread enough so they would not question what he was further.

"I would not have agreed if I had know he would send an animal. Furthermore how do you know my name? Not even Mr. October knows that." Marilyn said.

"I can read minds. I know you had a muffin and coffee for breakfast and that you and Rebecca were arguing about the length of her skirt." Nodrog said and crossed his arms.

"The quicker you let him do his job the quicker he will be gone." Richard said nervously.

"Indeed. I only need to look through his room and if you can give me the names of any friends or places he knew and frequented." Nodrog said. Given how standoffish Marilyn was, he already had a probable reason for the boy to leave. And he wouldn't blame the boy in the slightest for it.

"Rebecca, show him Anthony's room and change out of that skirt or you will not be leaving the house." Marilyn said firmly.

Rebecca rolled her eyes and sighed. "Yes mother. His room is this way."

Nodrog followed the young lady up the stairs. She was the oldest and was Alice and Jenny's age. He kept a neutral expression as her short skirt allowed a nearly unhindered view of her cotton panties and firm ass, at least on the stairs. The hall was well lit and had a few more personal decorations.

"This is Anthony's room." Rebecca said and continued down the hall to her own room.

Nodrog smiled slightly as he entered Anthony's room. It at least looked lived in. A few posters on the wall, a very unorganized closet and desk with a computer. Nodrog wiggled the mouse, the screen came on and asked for a password. Rather strange to leave the computer on for this long since you could turn it off without a password. He pulled out a small drive and plugged it into the computer.

While the program on the drive hacked into Anthony's computer Nodrog turned his attention to the book shelf. Nothing of real outstanding note, text books and a girly magazine tucked into one of the text books. That did stand out only because there were no humans in it, it was all human animal hybrids. The real stand out was a black bible hidden by the cover of a text book.

"Now this is interesting." Nodrog said and flipped the dark text open. He had seen them before and this one was no different. A few hand written notes on the pages along with highlighted text. Apparently, Anthony was greatly interested in the dark arts.

As the drive unlocked the computer, a small window opened up. Anthony also had a thing for spying on his older sister as the hidden camera had a excellent view of the girl's walk in closet. Her lovely back side in full view as she hung up one skirt for a pair of blue jeans.

Nodrog closed that window and opened the e-mail. The computer had excellent protection to get inside, but once inside everything was open. He glanced through several correspondence. Nothing new since the day he went missing. The last one was not even cryptic, just a simple 'don't be late'.

A quick glance through a few files gave him everything he needed to know. The names of friends and addresses for a half dozen places. Nodrog turned the computer off and removed the drive he had used to hack it. "If you have something to say, just say it."

Marilyn muttered under her breath. "The police searched his computer and room. They did not find anything."

"Apparently they did not do a very good job. I have everything I need and will leave." Nodrog said and turned around to look at her.

"And what did you find that trained law enforcement did not?" Marilyn demanded.

"The names of some people he talked to a great deal. Can you name any of your son's friends?" Nodrog asked and looked past Marilyn to Rebecca. The flirty smile she gave him, she knew about the hidden camera in her closet.

Marilyn couldn't answer his question and he walked past her back down stairs. Rebecca put on her coat and quickly left the house before her mother argued with Nodrog about something.

"I demand you tell me what you found out what my son has done!" Marilyn yelled.

Nodrog pulled on his coat. "Demand all you want. I simply have the information I need to start looking for him."

"You have no idea who you are dealing with. I need to know what he has done with the drive." Marilyn said firmly.

Nodrog looked at her as he reached for the doorknob. "So the data on the drive is more important... When I find him, I will be sure and ask what he did with it."

Marilyn stewed in anger as Nodrog opened the front door and walked back out into the cold morning air. "What a cunt." Nodrog said as he walked over to the truck. The few people now out and heading to work looked at him with clear contempt.

Nodrog only smiled and waved, just to piss them off a little more. He was more interested in why Rebecca had gotten in his truck to hide then deal with pathetic, and miserable humans.

"Did anyone see you get in?" Nodrog asked as he climbed in.

Rebecca was sitting on the floor boards with her coat pulled over her head to hide her bright blond hair. "I am rather certain no one saw me, and if they did, they would not say anything to my mother."

"What about the camera in your closet?" Nodrog asked as he backed out of the driveway.

Rebecca blushed. "Anthony is not that kind of brother. He did it for a friend of his, and I like the attention..."

"What do you know about his disappearance?" Nodrog asked and barely slowed down for the guard hut.

"I know it has to do with whatever is on that drive he took. Mom was working on something big and messy. She won't tell us anything and is more upset about her work missing than my brother." Rebecca said.

"You can sit on the seat, no one is around." Nodrog said and pulled onto the highway.

"I don't suppose you could turn the heat up a little?" Rebecca asked. He was good looking for an anthro, but for a reptile to like the cold. It did not make much sense to her.

"Dragons are not reptiles. We are warm blooded creatures like mammals. Some of us are warmer blooded then most." Nodrog said as he reached over and turned the heat on.

"Sorry, I do not get the chance to interact with anthros very often. Mom, dad and a number of people try and deal with them as little as possible. Going so far as to say the anthro and hybrid humans are infected with an illness." Rebecca said.

"So the housing community is exclusively for pure blood humans?" Nodrog asked.

Rebecca nodded. "I am surprised they let you in the gate."

"They did not really have a choice. Is there a reason for you hiding in my truck, or are you hoping to help me find your brother?" Nodrog asked and glanced at her.

"I wanted to help find my brother, or at least give you some background information. If you want, you can drop me off at a friend's house." Rebecca said.

"That would be my preferred course of action. Did you know your brother was interested in the occult and dark magic?" Nodrog asked.

"No, I do know he had some strange friends... And not the 'hey hide a camera in your sister's closet' kind of weird." Rebecca said and glanced up at the road signs. "Take this exit and hang a left at the light."

Nodrog pulled off the highway. "Can you be a little more specific about 'weird'?"

"Well there was this pretty goth girl he brought over a time or two. Well she would have been pretty if her smile was not so... empty. She always smiled, but there was no feeling behind it at all." Rebecca said and added after a short pause. "She seemed to look down at everyone."

Nodrog followed her directions and pulled up in front of a rather run down looking apartment building. "This is the place?"

"Yeah, my real friends are a little on the broke side. I try not to associate with people my mom suggests... they tend to be close minded and hateful." Rebecca said and got out of the truck.

"Anything else?" Nodrog asked.

"Yeah. Don't cross my mother or her friends, they are not people you want to have mad at you." Rebecca said. Before she closed the door she did smile. "Thanks for the ride."

Nodrog smiled and waited until she got inside the apartment building. With that little tidbit, he suspected Marilyn did have more of a hand in Anthony's disappearance. So he headed for the building where she worked to see if he could learn anything. As he pulled to a stop across the street, it was rather apparent it would have to wait until there were less people present.

The building was behind an almost prison like fence and had a sign listing a number of things people could not bring onto the premises or be. The first thing on the sign was a strict enforcement of no anthros, hybrids or even animals allowed. It even went so far as to imply guide or assistant dogs were not allowed either. Marilyn and those she associated and worked with, had a large dislike of animals it seemed. Because now thinking about it, there were no pets in the housing development. Well large pets like dogs and cats. There could have been fish or small reptiles and mammals.

He parked at a gas station and went inside to get a drink and maybe ask about the place. Which judging from the looks those inside gave him, might not have been a good idea... if he was human.

"Are you lost or something?" The balding man behind the register asked.

"No. Thought I would just get a cup of coffee and a donut. Why is this a bad side of town?" Nodrog asked with well practiced innocence. The urge to punch him in the face was the first thing to cross his mind.

The balding man looked down at him, well tried since Nodrog was taller than the man. "Must be new in town then. This part of town is not real friendly to your kind."

"My kind, do you mean reptiles?" Nodrog asked and set the coffee and donut on the counter and pulled out some cash.

"You animal, human abominations." A tough looking man said. Well to some he might have been intimidating. Nodrog doubted Sherman or Roslyn would have been intimidated before they changed.

The balding man gave him his change. "Exactly."

"I would think, that kind of thinking would go against your religious beliefs." Nodrog said taking a cue from the crucifix hanging on the wall.

"What would you know about that!" The balding man yelled.

Nodrog looked down and reached in his pocket. "More than you could imagine. Maybe this will help, Judas."

The balding man shook with anger as he saw the silver coin laying on the counter after Nodrog moved his hand and walked away. Nodrog could only shake his head as the man yelled obscenities at him. He got in the truck and quickly pulled away.

"Why hello, Mr. I can't tell you what I am doing." Sherman said sarcastically after answering his cell phone.

"Yeah about that. What do you know about the part of town that is anti anthro?" Nodrog asked as he headed to a café.

"There is a part of town that is anti anthro? What the hell are you talking about?" Sherman asked and pulled up Nodrog's phone GPS.

"Now that you know where I am, do you know what I am talking about?" Nodrog grinned wickedly since he knew that would make Sherman mad.

Sherman grumbled and looked at the area in question. "I do know you are in a rather upscale part of town. There is a church, cult, whatever that is pretty hateful towards humans with animal genetics. I didn't think there was enough of them nut jobs to get a suburb of the city to be that way."

Nodrog stopped and glanced at the sign on the door to the café. "Well not a large area. Thanks and I will tell you a little more later."

"I would say be careful, but I doubt you will run into anything you can't handle." Sherman chuckled.

"Especially since I am going into a café with good looking women." Nodrog said and hung up his phone.

Sherman looked at his phone as the minute counter flashed and grumbled. "I'm telling Roslyn you are checking out girls and not working."

Nodrog smiled as he pulled open the door which had a sign welcoming all humans, anthros and aliens to the café. While not a big coffee drinker, the aroma of freshly ground beans and warm pastries was undeniably inviting. The place was fairly crowded and light conversation filled the air.

A rather plump redhead smiled cheerfully as Nodrog walked up to the counter, along with two young ladies in the back. "Hello, what can we get for you today?"

"Well, I am not sure. What would you recommend?" Nodrog asked with a friendly smile. His job was so hard some days, it was easy to filter through most of the chatter and listen to the redhead.

Nodrog laughed as she couldn't chose one thing and recommended nearly everything. So he ordered a large hot chocolate, since she said it was really cold out and a couple raspberry turnovers. Because he really liked raspberries. He sat at one of the few open tables and pulled out his phone, to pretend to look sort of busy while he sat and listened.

There was a little discussion over the anthro segregation a small area of this part of town had. He did not learn much about it, other than the people here thought it was dumb and ridiculous. Since segregation was mostly done away with over two hundred years ago. Nodrog smiled slightly, there was a table of ladies who were talking about him.

No one, mentioned Anthony or anything about what might have happened to him. Two of the young ladies behind the counter still thought about him, but they were afraid to talk about it. Not a single person even talked about the building behind the fence, hell they did not even want to think about it. If they knew someone who worked there, they did not know what kind of work went on.

The other place he wanted to check out did not open until late in the evening. So he headed back to company grounds mainly to leave the truck behind. He teleported closer to the club and got in line to enter. The line moved rather quickly since he got there a little before they opened. Plus it was a week night so it would be a lighter crowd. Along with it being damn cold as some people pointed out.

It was a little harder to follow some conversations in the club because of the loud music. A few of the more outgoing ladies asked him to dance, which he politely declined saying he was waiting for a friend. Jenny would probably like the place, since she liked dancing to noise. Nodrog mainly talked to one of the bar tenders and a guy who was sitting at the bar.

After a little over an hour, he paid his tab and headed out. By now the other facility should be mainly empty and he was getting the same information here as he had at the cafe. Which was not very much.

"Does your husband know you are out so late, Marilyn?" Nodrog said to himself as he stood on the roof looking down at her. He smiled as his form lost shape and he made his way inside, hidden from everyone even in plain sight. There was more people present then he had originally thought.

Sherman sat bolt up in bed. Nodrog was not in the room, but was talking to him rather loudly. 'You want me to do what?' Sherman asked telepathically as he sat on the edge of his bed.

"What's wrong honey?" Samantha asked though half asleep.

Sherman stood and put on his bath robe. "Nodrog needs me to look up something for him."

Samantha glanced at her clock. "At two thirty in the fucking morning?"

"If it wasn't important, he wouldn't ask." Sherman grumbled and went to the room they had their computers in and turned his on.

'Search the missing people report and focus only on those who are anthro.' Nodrog said from his vantage point from a vent in the ceiling.

'Okay...' Sherman muttered and typed away.

'Give me their names' Nodrog said as his shapeless form crept along the ceiling and walls.

'Are you going to tell me what this is about?' Sherman asked after reading off more than a dozen names.

Nodrog took a solid though still hidden form and placed his hand against a large glass enclosure. 'I found them.'

Chapter.

'You what?' Sherman asked.

'Well I found a couple of them. Go wake up Dr. Phillips and Mr. October.' Nodrog said as he looked over notes. Part of him wanted to get them to safety first, but part of him screamed to change and slaughter the people who had caused them harm. Annihilate them, wipe them from the face of the world, with all his nightmarish power.

'We don't have jurisdiction outside our facility.' Sherman said and was now fully awake.

'I'll take care of that as soon as I figure out what else they are doing here.' Nodrog said and reacquired Marilyn's location and headed quickly and quietly in her direction.

Anthony was not missing, he was in a lab his mother oversaw. He was almost dead, they had cut him open and used his blood to draw a pentagram on the floor. He was bound and propped at the tip of the longest point on the asymmetrical pentagram. Candles flickered at each point of the star and several robed humans stood around it. Marilyn leading them in summoning a demon.

"They are trying to wake him." A pale skinned woman said as she stood next to Nodrog in an observation room.

Nodrog glanced at the female Death Knight. Her blond hair nearly white and a dark cast mark shown on her forehead as she used magic to remain hidden from the humans. She wore dark soulsteel armor and carried a dark soulsteel daiklave. Her eyes shown anger, but her lips, her sweet lips had an empty smile upon them.

"I take it, that is why you are here, Maiden of the Mirthless smile." Nodrog said.

"I am honored the Nightmare Dragon knows my name. Yes my master had been given word from a demon that the boy summoned. The message the boy wanted the demon to tell anyone in the underworld who would listen, was these humans were trying to wake up he, who should never be woken. While the depravity they have shown their own kind amuses me greatly, my master and others want this put to a stop." The Maiden said both coldly and gleefully.

"I suppose a third circle demon would be an effective way to rid the world of a group of people. I cannot let that happen as well." Nodrog said and looked the Maiden in her cruelly beautiful eyes. "What if they were to summon a nightmare?"

She laughed cruelly. "To see your terrible power first hand, I would spare those that have already been tortured. All we need do, is alter the pentagram slightly and it will not work."

"Very well, let us show them what hell really is like." Nodrog said cruelly, under tones of Omega's speech slipping into his.

None present noticed the two move. Nor did they notice the lines of the pentagram become broken. For the powerful spell to work, it had to be flawless. The Maiden's blade cut the lines and cut the magic power of the pentagram. It would no longer summon anything, but the humans would not know that.

Nodrog lost his form once more. Using his own magic he caused the now broken pentagram to glow and become mirrored on the ceiling of the large room. Like mirror images, black sludge pooled in the center of the two pentagrams. Once the center portion had filled they reached out to each other. Sludge dripped down from the ceiling and met sludge dripping up from the floor. The rancid smell that always accompanied Omega Nightmare filled the room.

Marilyn and the others looked on in awe and nausea. At this moment they believed the summoning to be successful. The dark liquid metal sludge slowly pooled in the center as the magic they felt became overwhelming dropping most to their knees. Their faces went from awe struck fascination to horror as the sludge formed into the wrong shape.

Omega's cruel laughter filled their ears as it solidified, though in much smaller size. The black iron nightmare was lacking weapons and only the size of a rhino, but that faceless head still caused fear. Its dense metal mass cracking the floor beneath it as its shrill screams cracked glass and tile alike.

"Quickly, caste the banishment spell!" Marilyn yelled as the nightmare leered at her and took a step forward.

Omega used its slender, and lengthy whip like tail to stab the man with the tomb. "Ssssorry, but that will not work on meee, heeeheee."

A flick of his tail and the man was flung across the room where he splattered against the wall like a bug on a windshield. Absolute terror took hold as those present realized what had really happened. The demon they wanted to summon had ignored their call and instead a nightmare none of them knew took his place. The faceless creature's stink burned their nose and lungs. Its cries and screams chilled their bones and hurt their ears.

Omega tore them apart by its own teeth and claws but some were dealt with by magic. Shadows cast by the flickering candles came to life, peeling away from the walls and killing the person they belonged too. Several people tried to flee.

"You can't leave jusssst yet." Omega squealed and all of the doors slammed shut and barred themselves. He just laughed as the bullets they fired bounced off his metal scales.

Marilyn watched in horror as her staff was brutally, and violently torn apart like rag dolls. Three of them turned their own gun on themselves before that dragon could torture them. Eventually they were all dead and Marilyn was left alone and covered in blood as the abomination turned its attention back to her. Its movements looked painful and tortured as it silently stalked across the floor.

Marilyn lost her composure as it got close enough she could hear and smell its rancid wheezing breath. She collapsed to the ground sobbing. "Please I beg of you, spare me nightmare."

Omega laughed. "Sssspare you!? How ssshallow and empty you are. Their blood is on your handsss Marilyn."

The room changed back to normal. The bodies and blood were gone, the room was pristine and white once again. Marilyn looked at her hands, they were covered in blood. "No... No! This can't be!"

"Why mom?" Anthony asked. The nightmare was gone, but her son stood in front of her, trying to hold his intestines in his open abdomen.

"That is a good quesssstion. What did the poor boy do mommy dearesssst?" Omega asked with sickening glee.

Marilyn only sobbed, as she tried to get the blood off of her hands

As she scrubbed feverishly the nightmare only laughed. Marilyn looked up and screamed as those hideous jaws opened impossibly wide and the teeth pierced her flesh. She felt every agonizing thing as the monster bit her in half and the world went black.

Marilyn was startled awake by the shrill screaming of the fire alarms and the cries and screams of everyone in the lab with her. With the exception of those that shot themselves, they were still dead. Firefighters, EMTs and police were running into the lab, what they found was sickening.

The blood pentagram was smeared on the floor and some of the candles still flickered. Anthony had died from blood loss and his guts were hanging out of the large gash in his abdomen. Caused by the bloody knife in his mother's own hands.

Some of the people in the lab screamed and tried to fight off the emergency responders, because they could not see the real people. They only saw monsters who were going to harm them. Nodrog's magic had driven them insane and weak because some were quickly subdued, by force.

Others managed to wound or kill the people trying to help them. It was a messy ordeal and Marilyn? She sat holding her dead son's body muttering incoherently. Death was simply not a fitting punishment, a living hell... Well now that was certainly more fitting in the nightmare dragon's mind.

"Why are you letting them go?" The Maiden asked. The two were standing on the roof of the facility as more ambulances showed up and the now broken humans were pulled from the building to be taken to a mental hospital.

"I am not letting them go. They will be haunted by what they saw until they die. Every shadow, or drop of blood will remind them of what happened. Every time they close their eyes, they will see the nightmare dragon. They will never know peace." Nodrog said.

"What is to stop me from finishing the job?" The Maiden asked.

"Nothing. They are no longer my concern." Nodrog said and looked at the Maiden. "However, letting them live is crueler than killing them."

"I see your point. Very well, the matter is resolved." The Maiden said and vanished.

'Sherman, turn on the TV and put it on the news.' Nodrog said from the roof as he watched the woman talk to the camera another woman was holding.

Sherman turned the TV in Marko's office to the news. The three men stood in their bathrobes as the news showed the scene playing out where they hauled off the now crazy humans. Marilyn was strapped to a board as an anthro and human carried her out. She yelled obscenities at the anthro and screamed at nearly every shadow. There was no mistaking the fear in her eyes.

"Sheriff, what can you tell us?" The reporter asked.

The man glanced at his notes. "Someone pulled the fire alarm during what we believe to be some kind of sacrificial ritual. We have not gotten anything coherent from those who were performing it." The Sheriff said and flipped to another page.

"We have found more than a dozen missing people in different areas of the building. For their protection, I cannot tell you their names or where they are being treated at this time. We have not been able to look into what they were doing here, but speculation is they were trying to eradicate humans with animal genetics." The Sheriff said.

The news went back to the reporters at the news station. Nodrog appeared in the office just as Sherman turned off the TV. "It is not speculation. They were trying to kill everyone with animal genetics. It seems the scientific way was not fast enough so they were trying and nearly succeeded with an occult demon summoning."

Dr. Phillips rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Why did you wake me?"

"In case I needed to remove those anthros from the building. I was unsure of their medical condition. However your services may be needed to treat those people after initial diagnosis at the hospital." Nodrog said.

"Why the fire alarm?" Marko asked.

"That was not my doing. One of them must have pulled it when I closed all the doors to keep them from escaping." Nodrog said.

Sherman laid his ears back as he yawned. "And why are a bunch of them are crazy?"

Nodrog smiled. "That was my doing. They will never know peace, even their sleep will be haunted."

"Did you find Anthony?" Marko asked.

Nodrog sighed. "I did, his own mother gutted him with a knife to use his blood for a pentagram. I am sure his family will miss him, but they are now free from Marilyn's twisted demonic rule."

"Should I call the hospital and offer help?" Dr. Phillips asked.

Marko shook his head. "No, I will call later in the morning. Go back to your apartment and get some sleep. We will meet again at nine."

"Very well." Dr. Phillips said and headed back to his apartment.

"What should I do?" Sherman asked, hoping going to bed was his choice as well.

"Get some sleep, meet me back here at nine as well. We will think of a course of action then." Marko said and turned off the lights.

"What are you going to do, oh tireless one?" Sherman asked as he waited for the elevator.

"Go home." Nodrog said and vanished.

Nodrog silently checked on Roslyn. She was sleeping soundly, her breath light and peaceful. The change had erased any lingering effect the void might have had on her. His thoughts turned to Jenny, who was still troubled by nightmares from her two weeks in the void.

Nodrog stood and looked out at the snow covered compound as now the sky just began to lighten. He had killed Glados, who was responsible for Jenny and Roslyn being caste out into the void. However, the anger he had from the act of casting the two harmless young women out, still boiled inside his metal veins.

It most likely would never be quelled. They were safe and that was the important thing, but the anger was still there. As was the anger he held for Jenny's miserable father. Hanging was not a suitable punishment in Nodrog's mind. He was not, mad at Jenny for stopping him. Okay he was slightly upset about it, but in his defense, he was only going to make sure he could not lay a hand on her again. Because there were worse things than death.

Nodrog was kind hearted before the change and in his previous lives. He had tried everything in his power to protect the Valkyrie from Glados. His army fell to the force Glados held sway over at the time. Had he the power he has now back then, the outcome would have been different. The Pure Dragon's army would have fell and those he had failed to protect would have been spared.

For all the kindness and compassion he had, there was always darkness in his heart. Darkness that rivaled the depths of hell and the underworlds themselves. He could deal out evil even the most vial of beings could not. The voices in his head might be gone, but the tug between light and dark was always there. In their first life, Rose had countered that darkness. Her righteousness and purity kept it at bay, and now with her full power awake once more, it pushed back the dark.

Alice and Jenny also kept the darkness at bay, they helped Roslyn push it back farther, but as tonight showed, it was not always enough. Being with Dallarth countered the light, her shadow presence only strengthened his own darkness. They both knew it, and with the one exception of their very physical fucking. They tried to remain a certain distance apart, least they corupt each other.

It was partly why they usually kept Mianth between them. The little water dragon was far more powerful than anyone except the two typhoons really knew. Actually even Mianth herself did not know, the full extent of her power. Once the little dragon blooms, she will become an all powerful Dragon Goddess.

Could her power rival Nodrog's or even exceed it? Was it possible that Mianth could undo what had been done to him? Nodrog could only hope as he looked down at his hand and made a fist. Even if Mianth's power exceeded his own and she could undo the change or at the very least kill him... Did he have the right to ask her and put such a burden on her heart?

He looked back at Roslyn's bedroom as her alarm went off. She had perished after he had fell to Glados the first time. Having her back in his life and by his side once more was not something easily put into words. Nodrog could say the same for Alice and Jenny.

How do you tell someone that they saved you from oblivion so few could imagine? That went doubly for Jenny, since she willingly gave him her pure, sweet blood. The kitten gave so much, and continued to give with no regard for her own well being at times. He had piles of priceless artifacts and truly immense wealth, but it was worthless junk compared to what Jenny had given him with the very thing she needed to live.

These were the thoughts that Nodrog spent more time going over than nearly everything else. He walked over to the coffee pot and turned it on while Roslyn got ready for her morning workout.