A simple kiss. A simple, elated kiss. One that held no expectations as Kasabian’s lips found Mihai’s before they could overflow with yet more curiosity. But, one kiss could lead to another, like a door that had been pulled open with nothing less than a warm welcome waiting on the other side. Soon Kasabian was curled in against him, Mihai thought perhaps he’d like to stay like that forever as the man’s reassuring voice drifted over him, drawing him in, his own hands in motion without conscious thought, one drifting along his familiar’s side as if to encourage that closeness, the other discovering the silken strands of sun kissed hair that framed the man’s face. The kindred light in that smiling face was unlike anything Mihai had ever known, but he knew it was something he never wanted to live without ever again as his own smile grew, his hazel eyes seeing nothing but the man before him as his voice grew softer, “Yes. We found each other. As for what do we do?” Kasabian’s smile drew him in closer, a deeper warmth starting to spread from within him. The soft glow in those eyes nearly took Mihai’s breath away as their lips grew closer once more his voice a soft rumble just above a whisper, “We take some time to catch up, maybe see what we’ve been missing before we can see where we might-”<br/><br/>A dazzling light, a sensory sizzle of power, then the form curled against him left with nothing to prove he was ever there but for the cooler air of the room swirling against the warmed skin where Kasabian had been against him. It happened so fast, but not nearly fast enough to spare Mihai the realization of what was happening as he felt the echoes of confusion that were not solely his own crowding his mind. Kasabian had been taken.<br/><br/>He stared at the space where his familiar had been, brow knitting tighter as his jaw clenched, his mind racing as his pulse started to do the same. Innocent questions of schools and times past were gone from Mihai’s mind in an instant, replaced with a seizing pressure in his gut that left him reeling. Where could Kas have been brought to? And why would anyone want to drag Kasabian away in the first place?<br/><br/>Trying to cling to the fleeting echoes of what must have been from Kasabian’s own mind, the sensation seemed oddly similar to the fuzzy dreams Mihai had been having leading up to his casting of the summoning spell. Was he scrying the man’s thoughts the same way he could reach into the mind of animals in the world around him? He focused in on that thought, trying to use the same focused technique, trying to take in any detail of thought-<br/><br/>“No!” Mihai growled, his eyes narrowing as his hands came out in front of him, as if he could reach for Kas, as if the distant blonde could somehow feel his touch in response to the roiling flash of emotion that greeted Mihai’s efforts. But Kasabian was not within his physical reach, and as Mihai regained his focus on that mind once more, he found it whirling in a wary sense of anticipation, in desperation before the flurry of mental activity suddenly cut short, a cold, black space seeming to loom within Mihai’s own mind where Kasabian’s warm presence ought to have been.<br/><br/>Mihai’s eyes snapped into focus on the space around him, his breathing ragged as he found he was truly alone, both in his bed and his mind. He was on his feet before he really knew where he was going, his mind finally cluing him in after pulling the door to his room open, remembering the strange looks his parents had given him as they had discovered the true reason for Kasabian’s arrival. They knew something. Maybe it was something that would lead him to Kas.<br/><br/>He took the stairs two at a time, only to be greeted by his parents already standing at the foot of the stairs, their eyes full of resignation, even as Liza reached out her arms towards her son in apparent sympathy, “Oh, honey... What happened, are you okay?”<br/><br/>Mihai stopped short of her embrace, hazel eyes blazing as he stared the pair down, his words an impatient hiss, “He’s gone. Taken. Why do I get the feeling you’re not surprised? Please, tell me what you know.” He took a step closer, but kept his arms carefully at his sides as the pair cast quick, uncertain glances towards one another, his voice raising to a shout that echoed back almost painfully within the confines of the hall, “‘Kas is in danger! I need to find him, NOW!”<br/><br/>The sound of the television in the next room crackling as it tried to maintain its signal accompanied the flickering of the lights throughout the residence as Liza and James held their ground, Liza finally putting a tentative hand out to touch Mihai’s arm, “Honey, maybe you should sit down and-”<br/><br/>“TELL ME!” The sheer desperation in his voice betrayed the emotion behind it, the sudden silence in the house as most of the electronics seized up momentarily seeming to hang like a heavy fog around the three forms. Mihai was nearly panting for breath as his eyes pleaded with his parent’s for the information he sought, the information he NEEDED as they stood unfazed by his outburst. He had to find Kas. They of all people should have known the danger of letting a familiar come into harm’s way. How could they be wasting precious time like this?<br/><br/>Mihai’s father finally spoke up, his low voice not carrying the soothing edge that his mother’s had, his eyes looking haunted as he finally spoke the words Mihai needed to hear, “The Merrick family, including your friend Kasabian... They serve the Blackmore’s. Generation after generation. The news going around the Circle is that Kasabian moved back to town strictly to fulfill the summoning of Devlin Blackmore.” Mihai must have looked like he was about to start firing off questions again, because James quickly pushed onwards, a grimace coming across his face even as Liza looked like she might start weeping at the confusion twisting her son’s visage. “I’m not sure what happened between you boys tonight. Maybe the spell got twisted somehow, drawing off connections you already had instead of forming a true familiar bond, but maybe just wasn’t Kasabian wasn’t meant to be yours, Mihai. Best to just leave him be from now on, to let him settle into his new life.”<br/><br/>A nightmare. It had to just be a nightmare. The thought of the glowing soul of Kasabian anywhere near that twisted son of a bitch Devlin made Mihai want to whisk his familiar away, to flee the state, the country... His familiar... Yes, Kasabian was HIS familiar. There was no mistaking that connection they had, that warmth between them, no matter what his father said. He had to help Kas, no matter where he had ended up. He took a steadying breath, trying to find a path forward through the chaos that his parents refused to acknowledge.<br/><br/>“Please,” he finally breathed, eyes drifting between the gazes of those he trusted most. “I’ve got to at least know that he’s alright. I could sense him, something was wrong and then... and then it all went black. I think he’s in trouble. Please, I’ve got to find him.” He reached out his hands, carefully taking each of theirs, trying to convey his need. The looks of near pity he received back stabbed at him, incredulity twisting his brow, his teeth bared in a grimace as he shoved his way between them, heading for the door, shoving his feet into his shoes as he muttered, “Fine, I’ll just have to track him down some other way.”<br/><br/>“Don’t you dare walk out that door.” Liza had raised a hand towards Mihai as the pair turned towards where he was preparing to leave, the door before him starting to rattle on it’s hinges, but James’ hand was soon on hers, dragging it down until their hands were entwined between them.<br/><br/>“Liza, he’s a grown man,” James murmured to his wife, trying to soothe her temper, “Let him act like one.” With his parents’ attention on each other for a brief moment, Mihai deftly snagged the little age-worn book that had been sitting on the entry way table for as long as he could remember. It contained little hand written notes on every coven member in the state, and while Mihai had many of the numbers memorized or programmed into his phone, the Merrick family contact records were not among them. He glanced back at the pair by the stairs once more, his face a mask of determination that hid the true trepidation that was clinging to him as he stepped out without another word, striding into the street and dropping into the driver’s seat of his old Ford Pinto, hoping the engine would start in the chill air of the evening. He tried to keep calm, lest his mood sabotage his car further as it had done to the electronics back in the house. He let out a relieved breath when the carefully upkept engine finally flared to life, and he pulled out into the street, taking a direct route towards the Blackmore estate. “Since it’s where you seem to think he belongs,” Mihai growled, his heart starting to pound faster as his mind started spinning out far too many scenarios as to what had happened to Kasabian after he had disappeared. He took a deep breath, trying to focus on working through one possibility at a time, trying to only garner the useful information rather than the fear that tried to flood in along with it. His eyes flicked to the little book that he’d tossed into the passenger side seat, lips twitching to the side before he pulled off into an empty lot and started flipping through the little book for Kasabian’s phone number. There was only one number, listed as nothing but ‘Merrick’, but Mihai pulled his phone out nonetheless. “Kas... Please...” he breathed, his mind still trying to recover from the void the man’s sudden blackout had left behind. “Please, where are you?” He punched the number into his phone, thinking his heart might stop beating as the line rang and rang and rang.<br/><br/>________________________________________<br/><br/><br/>Devlin’s rage didn’t ebb as he left Kasabian’s residence. If anything it grew as he realized the enormity of the complications that the damn cat had caused him. His instinct was to track down Mihai Ardellan, string him up, and see just what kind of power he could gain from snuffing the life from a witch, one drop of blood at a time. But if his promised familiar had truly been bound to that freak, Mihai, then killing the man outright would likely ruin his own toy without ever having the chance to lay a finger on Kasabian, either by breaking his mind or dragging him into the grip of death as well as the man he’d been bound to. Mihai had already done enough to taint Devlin’s promised prize. He wasn’t about to let that freak’s death rob him of anything else. His ‘pet’ would have to be freed from Mihai’s binding. That left the small task of finding a way to make sure that whatever might have been established between the two was well and truly ruined before he could allow himself the indulgence of finally using his rapidly growing powers to bind Kasabian to him once and for all. Whether the cat liked it or not.<br/><br/>That thought nearly brought a smile to his face as he drove towards his parent’s estate, eager to begin the preparations that would lead to his most powerful spell yet, along with the downfall of the witch who had dared to touch his Kasabian.<br/><br/>As he pulled his Mercedes into the private garage he’d had built just beyond the suite of the Blackmore estate that he called his own, Devlin quickly stalked inside with a cursory beep of the car alarm before dropping the car keys onto the little table just inside the door to his sitting room and stripping off his jacket, tossing it out across the end of the black leather couch near the center of the room. The space could have been mistaken for a five star hotel, luxuriant marble table tops situated among carefully crafted leather furniture in stark white and black, the brightness that might have otherwise filled the south facing space during daylight hours was artfully diffused by diaphanous curtains over the nearly floor to ceiling windows that overlooked a private courtyard.<br/><br/>Stepping through the space as if it was nothing more than an overly wrought hall, Devlin made his way into the spare room that held his private collection of spell components, as well as a conveniently large floorspace. His face was still set into a deep scowl as his mind swirled through the possibilities of what would grant him the power he would need, his long fingers pulling out drawer after drawer, eyes flickering over shelves of meticulously kept vials. A small collection of magically imbued items were soon collected onto a dark workbench, open flame set to life, and a single golden strand of thread left across the center of the surface to be severed. A dark smirk crawled up Devlin’s face as he took up one of the small collection of items, a silver locket with a lace-like lid, and whispered a few words as his fingers pulled further and further away from it’s burnished surface, the metal seeming to tremble in the light of the flames as the imbued magic was sapped away, siphoned into Devlin himself.<br/><br/>Seconds later, the locket was nothing but a useless lump of pitted metal, nothing but trash to be tossed aside as Devlin reached for the next item, then the next, his smile growing wider as his dark eyes took on a glimmer that might have been mistaken for glee, if one had not known the malice that fed such a wicked light.