Tobias spotted him between songs. Asmodeus Graves stood at the back of the room, a circle of space around him like people instinctively knew not to get too close. Bold motherfucker, showing up here. This soon. It was going to be a long night, keep your eyes on the enemy and make yourself invisible. Those thoughts rolling around in his head. He didn't know if Ella had seen Asmodeus; if one of them made a move on her, it would be over. The rest of the murder was placed around the bar and he really didn't want them to get involved with this.
He kept his mind on the music. Going through the set list in his head. Grabbing the mic and belting out something that might make Ozzy Osbourne proud. Now there was a problem: people were at the front of the stage, and they were dancing, and he noticed something about Ella. It didn't look like she was having a good time; it looked like she was getting mobbed by a bunch of people dancing. His eyes were locked on that mob of people at the front of the stage.
Ella had felt hands on her, big hands, and this guy smelled. She looked over at her attacker and it looked like one of The Graves Enforcers. He had placed a hand over her mouth and she was being pulled to the back of the room. She couldn't focus on who she was being pulled towards, and then she saw his face. The bastard, Asmodeus Graves. He was getting closer and closer. That's who she was being pulled towards.
Then it clicked inside of him. That wasn't dancing. Someone had a hand on Ella. She wasn't going willingly, but she was going; they pulled her to the back of the room going towards Asmodeus. The rage inside of him was boiling. He belted out a few more songs, and then there was movement within the crowds of people. A fight. One of the members of the murder attempted to grab Ella away from the brute. There was the sound of a smack that filled the bar.
He felt like this wasn't the time to turn into a big black bird and take everyone out. He wanted the people safe at the show, and him doing that wouldn't be able to keep them safe at all. A few more songs. His naturally light-colored eyes shifted to a darker color. He could feel the urge for that thing to come out. He needed to hold it back. Not right here and not right now. He had noticed they had stopped right at Asmodeus, and it looked like they were talking. Not Ella and Asmodeus, but the person that had grabbed her.
"Fuckers." Tobias said in a muffled tone. His eyes still on the people in the back, and that is when he saw it. Asmodeus Graves looking directly at him with a smug smirk on his face.
As Ella came face-to-face with Asmodeus, he lifted his hand into the air and said something in a different language. A swirl of smoke surrounded Asmodeus, Ella, and the Graves Enforcer that was holding her. They disappeared. The music was loud enough so no one could hear what they were saying or the fact that Ella had been screaming, and now the rest of the Enforcers were there to do what they were hired to do: kill and destroy Tobias Black.
The Enforcers surrounded Raven, and he's fighting his way out of them. Had to be at least four brutes; he caught the foul odor of them. They weren't just brutes. They were fucking mutts, dogs, K-9's. Werewolves. He hated those motherfuckers more than he hated his entire family. A fist connected on the side of his face. He made a sound and then spat on the floor in front of him. A few spots of blood hit the floor. It looked like these fuckers wanted to play dirty, and he could do that too.
If this thing wanted to fight, he would fight. The brute's fist came towards his face once more, and he simply jumped out of the way. The great thing about being a Were-Crow is the physical ability to be able to jump to high places. It was like he was a modern-day Superman. Now, if he was in his bird form, he would just shit on this person, and that would be awesome fun.
This fight was going to distract everyone from the fact that the enforcers had just grabbed Ella Grace, and they were over in the back of the bar with Asmodeus Graves, and he couldn't do anything about that right now. He came down on top of the brute with a brutal elbow on top of the head. Blood started pouring out of the top of the brute's head, and he went down. Raven looked at his elbow; it was bleeding, and his bone had been pushed out of his elbow.
"That can't be good." Raven said, and then he just pushed his bone back in.
"Fixed." There was that disgusting sound of a bone cracking and being set back into place, and that is when the other two brutes attacked him. They hit him in the side of his head, and then Raven hit the ground, and the brutes began hitting and stomping him. He was on the ground motionless, his body covered with blood and tears and rips on his clothing.
The two brutes stood over Raven and began laughing. Raven extended both of his arms; they were covered in black feathers. A partial transformation. He grabbed the throats of the brutes and crushed them in his hands. They fell to the ground lifeless, and he got to his feet, dusted himself off, and stepped over them.
His eyes were on Ella, the Enforcers, and Asmodeus, and it didn't look good.
Tobias tramped up on the stage going through his songs, blood boiling and not being able to do anything. It was like he was watching a television show, but it was in real life. He still had his eyes on that smug son of a bitch. Now it looked like there were no sudden movements and no heated argument. Now there were words being exchanged by Asmodeus and Ella. If he could read lips, this would be better. He didn't want to stay put anymore. He put his guitar down and leapt from the stage to the floor. He landed and made a sound.
He was met with a mob filled with brutes, and they were holding him back. Tobias took a few swings and knocked a few of them out and took off towards where Asmodeus and Ella are standing. Another mob got in front of him, and he swung a few times and knocked them out. This happened a few more times, and he was almost an arm's length away from Ella. Both Ella and Asmodeus vanished in a puff of smoke. A teleportation spell, most likely, and he was left with a room filled with enforcers.
A few of the members of the murder came out of hiding to even up the odds between Tobias and the Enforcers. A large-scale brawl took place. Chairs and beer bottles were busted over people's heads. Blood spilled down onto the floor. Bodies littered the floor of The Broken Oar like it was Woodstock in the 1970s. What should've been a great night turned into tragedy. Tobias just stood there and stared at the place where Ella Grace had been standing only a few minutes before. He was taking it all in. Dazed, confused, pissed off. His breathing got heavy, and his heart started to beat fast.
He failed; he was supposed to keep this woman safe, and he couldn't. She had been plucked away from him just like that. What kind of shit was that? Had they used some sort of transportation magic? The anger was boiling up inside of him, and he lunged at the wall with a fierce punch. He hit the wall, the bar began to shake, and he could feel something coming loose from the rafters. He wasn't even sorry. They needed to formulate some sort of plan to get Ella back. Raven had decided to approach him cautiously.
The other members of the murder could feel for why Tobias was feeling the way he did. The Graves had tried to murder them all, and it didn't work. They were still here, but they took something dear from Tobias. A beloved. Silas, Tobias's drummer for the evening, approached him and tried to put his hand on Toby's shoulder in a comforting way. Tobias pulled away, and that was expected of him from what had just happened. Silas shook his head.
"Man, they will get what's coming to them." Silas said, his voice calm and filled with respect. It sounded like a father talking to his son.
"They ain't going to do anything to that girl." He added. He forced himself to smile, but he wasn't really sure if he was telling the truth. He didn't believe that shit for a second.
The other members of the murder—Marcus and Ms. Cheng—were going around the bar and looking for people that were injured and trying to help them. Billy didn't like the fact that a murder of crows had nearly destroyed his bar.
Billy looked over towards Tobias and shook his head. "When ya get your first record deal, you're paying me back for damages!" That was the first time in a few minutes that Tobias had cracked a smile.
"Slow and steady wins the race." Silas said once more. "Or so that's what them old books told me. We can't go in all guns blazing tonight. We can formulate a plan with the others. Just don't be stupid and try to take The Graves Estate by yourself. All them werewolves will tear ya apart." Silas added with a laugh.
"I guess we can sort stuff like this out tomorrow." Tobias said as he looked over at Silas and forced a smile. "Thanks."
"You can't do anything brash." Raven said as he looked at Tobias.
"Rushing in is what they want." He added.
Tobias didn't say anything and walked by Raven and the rest of the murder and went outside. The air was filled with filth. He could smell that. He dug out his pack of cigarettes and lit one, smoked it, lit another, and smoked it. He could hear and smell Raven approaching him from behind. His best friend thought maybe he could calm him down. That wasn't the case right now.
"I'll burn that estate to the ground." Tobias growled.
"We need time." Raven said.
"How much?" Tobias asked.
"Two days max." Raven answered.
"So, where do you fuckers make up your home base now?" Tobias asked Raven.
"Old canning factory on the southside. We like to fish in the morning. By the way, there are were-seagulls too." Raven said, laughing. He was cracking a joke.
Tobias forced a smile and sighed heavily and nodded. "Fine. We move in two days."
Tobias then transformed into his bird form and flew off into the night.
Ella was thrown into a dark room with a metal door. The metal door was slammed shut by one of the enforcers. It was cold, and she began to shiver. This wasn't how today was supposed to end. There was the sound of talking outside of her door. It sounded heated and argumentative. She wasn't the type to roll over and die either. She wanted to get up off of the stiff bed and just pound on the door. She couldn't; there was no energy left in her body.
Her wrists had been bruised, and she didn't know why she felt like she needed to throw up. It might be because they had teleported all the way over here. She had decided to move around the room and look for a way out. No windows, no way to get light in, and the only door was a giant metal door. It had a peephole in it—people could see inside of it, but she couldn't see out of it. She walked over to the door and tried to rattle it. It made a sound. The room smelled like musk and mildew. That made her stomach turn. How did she get herself into this mess after all? She had the idea that Tobias would save her eventually. That is what the heroes did, right? She made her way back over to that bed, and she had a feeling she was going to be here for quite some time. It was silent except for the sound of heavy footsteps coming her way. They sounded like someone wearing very heavy work boots. Could it be another enforcer? Maybe it was something even worse. Something that she couldn't deal with right now. She opened her mouth, and she couldn't talk. It must be aftereffects of the magic that had been used.
She sat on the edge of the bed and watched the doorknob turn. The door slowly creaked open.
That smug son of a bitch, Asmodeus Graves, stood in the doorway a few feet away. This was the only man in the world she didn't want to see. The forced marriage was on again, she assumed. She wanted to scream at him and tell him that Tobias was going to kick his ass, but no sound would come out.
This girl had given him so much trouble. Why did she run from him? Didn't she know that he could give her the world? He just stood there in silence and watched her and her movement. The way she was moving, he knew she didn't want to be there. A twisted smirk formed on Asmodeus's face as he walked into the room and he walked over to her and grabbed her face.
Ella tried to kick and scratch Asmodeus. She wasn't marrying that freak. It didn't matter. Every scratch she made seemed to heal up on its own, and she could hear Asmodeus laughing about it like this was slightly amusing to him. Her stomach sank. She knew what was coming for her, and she didn't like it. If Tobias didn't come for her quickly, she was going to end up being married to this monster and raped every night. There was no way sex was going to be consensual between those two ever. She could feel Asmodeus's hand on her face, and then she bit him.
If she could talk, she would cuss him out right now. She watched him step away, and she really hoped that bitch of a mother wasn't coming into this room. Her stomach sank even more when she heard more footsteps coming towards them. She really hoped that wasn't his mother. She hoped it was a guard coming to put her out of her misery. She had put her trust in Tobias, and she knew that he would come to save her. He just needed to hurry up. She didn't want to spend the night here.
"You're mine now," Asmodeus said with a confident smirk. Footsteps could be heard behind him. He looked over his left shoulder, and he could see his mother coming towards him. He rolled his eyes. He didn't want to deal with her right now, and he knew that she was going to tell him what he needed to do.
"Don't play with her." Moira said as she scowled at Asmodeus. "She's not some sort of toy to be played with." There were two heavier sets of footsteps that approached the room. They stopped outside of the room. Two brutes were outside of the room, and that was just a safety precaution. Both of them knew how much of a firecracker that Ella Grace could be.
"You won't get away with this!" Ella Grace finally said. She had her voice back somehow. Maybe the stress of getting taken by Asmodeus had made her vocal cords not work right. She wasn't sure. She looked at both Asmodeus and Moira with hate and discontent in her eyes.
"Oh, dear." Moira said as she looked over at Ella and shook her head. "No one's going to come for you."
"Bullshit!" Ella fired back. She spat in Moira's face, and Moira wiped the spit off of her face and then slapped Ella as hard as she could. Moira grabbed Ella by the throat.
"You'd better learn your place, whore." Moira snarled at Ella.
"Stop it, mother! You don't want to treat your future daughter-in-law like that." Asmodeus said, his voice thick with overconfidence and venom.
"You're right." Moira said and nodded. She gave her son a brief smile before she left the two to do whatever they wanted to do.
"We won't starve you, Ella." Asmodeus said as he turned around and walked out of the room.
Asmodeus and Moira sat in the main room. Both were seated in a giant plush chair with drinks in their hands. The glasses were filled with a blood-red liquid, and both of them swirled the liquid in the cups. The plan had been set in motion, and being able to capture Ella that easily had not been in the cards. The two of them had a few brutes outside the doorway. You couldn't be too careful, after all. Then Asmodeus looked over at Moira for a minute.
"Do you think he'll come?" Asmodeus asked Moira.
"Definitely. The Black boy has a hero complex. The hero always comes after the damsel in distress. We showed him tonight how much power we have. We plucked his beloved from right under his nose. It was like taking candy from a baby, and soon she will be all yours." Moira laughed dastardly and confidently.