Mattias lay flat on the ground chest heaving, black tears streaking down his face. His lungs burned his ribs felt like they'd been split open from the inside. Above him loomed Manu the Nightingale let his wings half-spread, he stopped singing now not a single hint of emotion touched the horror's brow.
"Pathetic little half-breed," Manu said mockingly "Like a child's toy, wound up again and again. Shall I keep winding you until you snap again?"
Mattias coughed, black sludge dribbling from his lips. He rolled onto his knees, swaying, trying to summon a steadiness he didn't feel. His throat cracked as he rasped, "You could kill me again and again. I'll never be able to stop you. But seeing as you haven't killed me completely… I take it I'm just your stress toy."
That caught the Nightingale's attention. Manu tilted his head.
"Mm. Bold of you, half-breed." His voice lowered, feather-light but weighted with venom.
Mattias forced strength into his words. "Looking at your face I hit a nerve. If something exists out there that could actually stress a monster like you then I stood no chance to begin with" His lips twitched into a smile, even as his nerves screamed.
Manu crouched low, eyes gleaming. "You just got… audacious"
"If you keep killing me just because of that," Mattias whispered his voice low like a blade's edge "then maybe you're just prey in someone else's net already."
"Prey?" The Nightingale laughed wild, sharp and soaked in malice putting his wing to Mattias is neck "You think I'd spare you after saying that?"
Mattias swallowed hard, then smiled anyway teeth blood stained in black. "Doesn't change anything does it ,you were going to kill me again either way."
The word "again" hung strange in the air.
Feathers rasped as Manu's wings shifted back. His eyes narrowed. "For a half-breed, you're daring so tell me this if I were to choose to devour you right now, what reason can you give me not to?"
Mattias coughed blood but his crooked grin held. "A reason? You'll never let me live long enough to find one"
Silence. Manu's grin spread slowly, he crouched closer with a talon-sharp finger tracing Mattias's jaw slowly.
"And if I let you live," the Nightingale murmured, "you will run away so I can't have an insect that bites my hand later."
Mattias tensed as his heart hammered. But his mouth curled too as an instinctive response.
"Why would I run" he shot back, "when I could use you to get stronger then devour you whole."
Manu froze. Then let out a low and delighted laugh.
"You've got sharp teeth for a being that's only half of what I am," He pressed a finger to Mattias's chest, hard enough to bruise bone. "Keep them sharp. The second you're useless or unable to do what I want,I'll kill you."
Mattias's grin widened at the words.
Manu finally pulled back, wings folding tight. "Now get up, you pathetic abomination."
Mattias staggered to his feet, trembling but alive. He dared to breathe relief.
Then whip.
A single wing sliced through the air, and his head fell from his shoulders. For a heartbeat, his body stood upright while the world tilted.
Darkness closed in. The black goo surged reattaching head to neck. But Manu had infused his own energy into this blow making his body fluctuate and burn him from the inside the half breed collapsed unconscious.
And Manu smiled.
"Don't be asleep to long my little pet"