A/N:  unedited, as per usual.

You didn’t even have a chance to run.

A puff of sulphuric black smoke appeared before you, leaving behind a tall man, with a smirk as sharp as glass, who stepped forward to drag you into the clearing.

Into the circle. 

You did scream then, heedless of who could and could not hear, terror clouding your mind, suffocating your thoughts, squeezing your lungs. Despite your terror, you tried to fight, but his arms were like bands of iron, and you were terrified of touching his body, touching the place that was still as hard as cold iron.

Cold iron.

His body was cold.  Not even the ghostly warmth of breath touched your skin as he wrestled you into the uncertain light. 

It was like being held by a statue, come to life.

“Little Maiden!” a laughing, bell-clear voice called, and you took a breath, stopped screaming for a heartbeat as you recognized the speaker.  Whipping your head around, you caught the amused black eyes of the man in the bookstore, staring down at you.  

“Ah, there she is,” a second, deeper, but no less amused voice chimed, and you watched as the black-eyed man from the magic store came up behind the first, rested his elbow on the first’s shoulder.  

The first man scowled at his companion.  “Stay thee back, Chen. Dost thou think we eleven remained unaware of how thou didst try to take the little maid for thy very own self?”

The man with the snake smile grinned, his teeth almost glowing in the pale moonlight.  “Canst thou blame us? Before she didst seem merely delicious, but now...lookest thou at the maiden’s eyes…”

Once more you felt the force of their black eyes on you, and you wanted to cower, but the man holding you was just too strong. 

“Let loose the maiden, Kai,” a tall, deep-voiced man said, his expression cold.

“Must we?” the one called Kai purred from behind you, gripping you so tightly that you could hardly breathe as he lowered his head to rub his chin, his cheek, into the juncture between your neck and shoulder.  

Your skin burned with the cold.  

“She is so very delicious,” Kai breathed.  

Something slimy, frigid and wet pressed against your neck, dragged upward toward your hair, and you renewed your struggles to escape.  

“Youngling!”  A shorter, impossibly muscular man, whose black eyes looked particularly incongruous in his Boticelli face barked at your captor.  

With another puff of foul-smelling smoke you were released, and fell to the ground at the sudden lack of support from your captor.  Quickly scrambling to your feet, you turned to run, but everywhere you looked was a scarred, black-eyed man looming over you.  

Taking your chances, you made for who you figured to be the weakest link--the relatively slight man from the bookstore.  

You chose poorly.  

If the man called Kai’s body had felt like mere cold iron, then the cold from man’s body was unlike any you had ever experienced, burning through your clothes, searing your skin with ice.  Gritting your teeth against the pain, you tried to struggle, but once he had his arms wrapped around you, you found that you couldn’t move at all. Black eyes pierced down into your own, as a hungry look came over your new captor’s face. 

“Xiumin,” Kai laughed, “Weren’t thou just chastising Chen for his greed?  Hast thou also taken leave of thy will?”

Xiumin whipped you around, wrapping his icy arms around your body as he clutched you close.  

You could feel the icy bar of pressed against your spine and you stopped struggling, not wanting to excite him further, though panic clawed up your throat.  

A growl--not an approximation, but a growl as deep and animalistic as any you had ever heard--rumbled from the chest pressed tightly to your back, and black, nauseating, all encompassing- fear pressed against your mind, literally feeling as if it were pushing against the inside of your skull.

“Xiumin…”  It was the tall man again, his voice a warning as he gestured to another tall man who scowled as he slowly stepped forward, blue fire seeping through his fist to start snaking up his arm.  

A hiss and then you were once more in the middle of the circle, with dark eyes, and gleaming white teeth bearing down on you wherever you looked.  

Just when you were ready to howl in a mixture of fear and frustration, the man who had made Kai release you tilted his head in consideration, looking you up and down as if he were examining some new species of particularly interesting insect.  With a turn, he was dressed, both in garments and hair, though over his clothing he wore a long cloak, the same black as his eyes.  

Slowly he opened his arms and, looking around and deciding that he was the least of all evils, being the one who controlled Kai, as well as--more importantly at the moment--the only one who was clothed, you ran into them, sobbing desperately as he wrapped his cloak around you and you finally--finally felt a warm body.  Clutching at him, you cried into his neck, but aside from the arms wrapped around your body, he didn’t move.  

Silence reigned, broken only by your snotty sobs ringing through the dark clearing until finally, you noticed that no one was saying anything, that the man to whom you clung so piteously hadn’t moved.  Lifting your head, you saw that he was coolly surveying the men above your head and, with trepidation you turned, then sagged in relief to find that all were now similarly dressed. 

Despite the hair, and the fact that the lumpen, jagged, weeping scars were now out of sight, you still felt the weight of their black, empty eyes pressing into your spirit, and you shuddered at the feeling of...uncleanliness.  

Cocking his head, Xiumin slowly looked you up and down, his black eyes making him like nothing so much as a shark.  

A headache pulsed dully in the back of your skull, and you pressed closer to the warmth of the body next to yours.  

Suddenly, Chen took a step, blocking your view of Xiumin, come-hither smile firmly in place.  “Xiumin,” he started, his voice chiding, as he took a glance back, “Thou affrightest the chit.”  Turning back to you, he took a step closer, held out his hands. “Thou canst let go of the maid, Suho.  She will come to me, wilt thou not, Daughter of Eve?”

Looking up, you were dismayed to find that Suho’s face was set as hard as stone, though a fine tremor rippled across his features before h e lowered his arms, took a stiff step back.  Every movement screamed an act of pure will.  

“Maiden?”

Ripping your gaze from Suho to turn once more to Chen, you looked suspiciously at his hands.  

He laughed.  “Verily, by our name will we not harm thee on this night, nor allow any one of us to bruise thee.”

A murmur went through the rest of the men, as if Chen had said something very witty.

You didn’t trust any of them, but didn’t see as you had much choice, considering their strength and--you swallowed involuntarily as your mind shied away from the particular black pit of gibbering madness that dragged you closer when you thought of how Kai had teleported, and the strange blue fire that had crept up the arm of the scowling tall man.  Slowly stepping forward, you came to stand before Chen, but you didn’t take his hands.  

A flash of irritation passed over his features, before they were once more as smooth and placid as they had been in the bookstore, and he lowered his hands.  “We hath affrighted thee, and for that are we sore aggrieved. Yet, we wot that thou wouldst becalm thyself were we to give thee our names?”

“I’d calm down, if you let me go,” you muttered, too frightened for even false bravado.

“Worry not, the sun will rise on thee, whole and untouched in thy al bower,” a broad-shouldered, youthfully handsome man said, the wicked smirk on his face somewhat belying his words.  

“Uh, I just like, saw all of you running around the woods not five minutes ago, so forgive me if I don’t trust you.”

The man’s smirk turned sharper, his black eyes growing heavy-lidded and intense.  “Wouldst thou care to see me unclothed once more, Daughter of Eve?”

“I would very much like to not see any of you ever again, thank you!” you said tartly.  

“Art thou sure, Fair Maid?” a cold, clarion voice whisperingly slithered into your ear.  

Jumping, you turned to find Xiumin pressing close behind you, something darker than mischief colouring his features.  

“In truth, we wouldst indeed greatly care to see thee n--” Chen began.

“That’s enough!” you yelled, stress causing your temper to snap.  

“Come away, Xiumin” a small, what would have been a sweet-faced boy, had his eyes not been black as pitch, ordered, gesturing for the cat-eyed boy to leave your side.  As XIumin grudgingly obeyed, the soft-cheeked boy turned a smile on you, and you suppressed a shudder as the same sensation you had in the magic shop--that, if you looked sideways, that grin would widen ever longer until it completely slipped off the sides of his face--crept with icy fingers up your spine.  His eyes grew knowing. “Dost thou quake, Little Maid? Fear not, for I will not have thee this night.” 

Stepping forward, he sketched a mocking little bow as he took your hand, placed an icy kiss on the tips of your fingers.  “My name is Luhan.”

“I can’t say that it’s a pleasure,” you muttered.

He laughed, his smile stretching just a bit too far before he seemed to catch it, and compose himself.  “Is it not, Little Maid? Then, what of this?” At the beckon of his fingers, a force pushed you into his warm arms, which wound around you like bands of steel.  At your shocked expression, he purred, pulled you closer. “Telekinesis. Wouldst thou like to see more?”

“Luhan,” Suho warned.

With soft, bass growl, Luhan dropped his arms, let you go.  “Wast only in jest.”

The broad-shouldered boy came forward then, with another mocking bow.  “Thou mayest call me Buoxian.” He took a step forward and instinctively, you took one back.  “And thou art?” he purred, his heavy lidded gaze burning into your own.

Something...small, and quiet in the back of your mind held your tongue, and you frowned, slowly shook your head, before affecting what you were sure was an unconvincing smile.  “Daughter of Eve is fine.”

Even under the moonlight you could see how his face reddened as something slightly pushed outward from under his marble-smooth skin, before sinking back as if it had never happened.  The shadows surrounding you seemed to lengthen, grow, to slowly blot the uncertain light of the sightless moon.  Your heart lost a beat then, before reasserting itself, fluttering in panic as the shadows seemed to pool, flow toward you.  

Though standing right before you, Buoxian grew harder to see and you bit your tongue, stifling a whimper when looked up to see what looked like darkness bleeding from spidery veins around his eyes into the growing shadows.  

A warm arm draped itself around your shoulders and you heard Chen--though at this point you couldn’t even see him right next to you, as he gave a soft, warning, “Buoxian,” before arcs of sullen light began to trace down his arm, dance about his fingertips.  

“Chen, Buoxian!” Suho said, once more bringing the strange men to heel.  

You turned toward him, just in time to see Chen turn as well...though the smile on his face didn’t, hanging on the edge of his cheek facing you like a disturbing imitation of the Cheshire cat.  Just as you felt his fingers start to tighten, you stepped out of his embrace, only to bump into something hard.  

Spinning around, you looked up to find the tall scowling man from before, and beside him, the one who had ordered him to stop Xiumin from...whatever he had been about to do--you didn’t want to think any deeper on it.  

Fortunately, the man’s scowl was gone, though his face could hardly be described as friendly.  No, the expression was far more...predatory, as if he wanted to eat you from the inside out.  

With an inclination of their heads, they introduced themselves as Kris and Loey.  

“You control fire!” you blurted to Loey, who merely smirked with a cocky nod.  “Dost thou like fire, Little Maid,” he said, the bass of his voice reverberating in your chest as he stepped forward, crowding you.  “Wouldst thou like to see worlds aflame?”

Kris stalked behind you as you tried in vain to keep an eye on both of them.  Despite your efforts, his voice soon rasped in your ear as he took you by the elbows, “Come away with me, and thou couldst fly above the world, Maiden.”  

With that, to your horror, you began to rise as dark wings of flame stretched from behind you.  In a panic, you looked down to see Loey looking hungrily up at you, and despite the fact that you did not trust him in the least, at least he was very much on the ground, so you reached out in desperation, crying out when, with what sounded like a triumphant snarl, he grabbed your hands, pulled you down--

And stopped.

You froze--a deer in the headlights--looking up at Loey’s forceful gaze as he looked down unblinkingly at you.  After a moment, you realized that everything had gone quiet--the normal sounds of the night as silent as the grave.  Fidgeting, you broke free from Loey’s grip, but he didn’t respond, didn’t even blink. Suddenly, even more alarmed, you turned to find all of the men similarly frozen.  

Save one.

A tall, sharp-jawed man was slowly, slowly prowling around the still, silent statues of his companions, hypnotic dark eyes fixed on you and, well--

If you had thought Xiumin had the eyes of a cat, then this man must have had those of a panther--large and tilted up at the ends, the skin beneath smudged and dark, giving him a haunting intensity to his already piercing gaze.  

Upon the realization that he had your attention, he smiled, still stalking forward as slowly and carefully as any predator.  “Well met, Little Maid.”

You looked around at the still men.  “Why--”

He waved a careless hand.  “Worry not, they cannot not harm thee, Little Maid, Wide-Eyed Maid, thou bonny Honey-and-Gold Maid.”  

As he spoke, you noticed a faint movement from the corner of your eye.  It was slight at first, slow, but over the course of moments, began to grow.  

Tao stopped before you, pulling your attention back to him.  “Call’st thou me, Tao. Dost thou like my little talent? Wouldst thou like to know--”

“Chronokinesis!” you blurted.

He merely raised a brow.

“Like Piper on...Charmed…” you trailed, feeling increasingly stupid the longer he stared, unmoving at you.  “You know, the TV show? With witches?”

An amused smile touched one corner of his mouth.  ‘If thou likest.” He took a step closer. “Wouldst thou away with me, Little Maid?  I can show thee...such things…”

Tao took another step forward, his hand outstretched.  “Takest thou our hand--”

A low growl split the silence of the night.  

Tao snarled in response, his voice deep, husky, but in no way matching the dark tone of the former.  

Incongruous with the sound and power of his voice, a slight man stalked forward, his impossibly large black eyes on Tao, a threatening promise written on every line of his square-jawed face.  “Hie thee hence, timekeeper,” he rumbled, “Thou wilt not take the maid.”

“Who art thou to command--”  Tao never finished his sentence.

A simple brush of his hand against Tao’s chest, and Tao was flying backwards through the air, stopping suddenly to hang for a moment before dropping, and with him the power that had held the rest of the men in place.  

Suddenly, the myriad sounds of the night rushed back in, even as Tao slowly stood, a dark scowl on his face.

 “Stayest thou there, lest thou awaken our ire,” the slight man said, standing between you and Tao, his stance broad, authoritative.  

“Dost thou think thou canst best us, D.O.?” Tao said, his husky voice voice lowering even further.

“Enough!” Kris snapped, even as you felt a hand slip quietly into your own, start to pull you away from the two posturing men. 

By now, you had gotten used to the fact that--with the return of their clothing and hair, also came the return of their body heat, but that was little comfort in the face of the rest of their utter wrongness, and your nerves were stretched so tightly that you started at the touch, wheeling around to find a tall man with with wide, intense black eyes in what would have been a cold face, had he not been staring down at you with such intensity.  

Something about him seemed almost...vulnerable, and you found yourself allowing him to lead you away from the other men.  Looking down almost shyly at you, he took back his hand, a crooked--not-quite-smile on his face. “Thou canst call us Shixun.”

“Shixun,” you repeated, astonished to see his eyes disappear as a surprisingly charming wide grin split his face at the repetition of his name.  

“Daughter of Eve,” he whispered, stepping closer, his black eyes shining in the moonlight.  “Thou must forgive us these transgressions, and listen carefully. Night grows short, and our hour wanes.  Thou must help thy servants.”

Your head twitched in shock.  “Help? Help you? I don’t--”

“We beseech thee, be silent, and listen.”  He waited until you gave him a small nod. “We were not always as you see us, thus, but hav’st been changed into such.  Long have we waited for a maid to come and free us from the ties that bind.”

You frowned.  “You’re saying that...you guys are like, under some sort of curse?  Like a fairy tale?”

Shixun looked relieved.  “Thou has the way of it. For centuries have we waited for one such as thou--thou wilt not fail to give us aid?”

“I...don’t know...this is weird.  I’m in the woods at night, you guys were , and frankly, all of this touching is really freaking me out, especially considering…” involuntarily, you glanced down before your eyes shot back to his face, your face flaming when you thought of what you had seen when you first arrived.  

“Thou need’st not do much,” he wheedled.  “Verily only seven small things, and thou canst set us free from these wretched forms.”

“Small things?  Small things like what?”

“Help us.  Join us. Thou canst be a powerful force if thou wouldst only--”

“Save thy breath, Shixun.  The little white witch carest not about our plight,” Buoxian said, cutting off Shixun, his voice bored.  

“Uh, rude, I was listening!  And I’m not a witch,” you shot at Buoxian before turning back to Shixun, who was looking down at you in surprise.  “Go on.”

“Thou art not a witch?”

You made a face.  “No.”

He smiled.  “Wouldst thou like to be?”

***

You were surprised to find Tasha still peacefully sleeping by the time you finally stumbled back out of the woods, and into your tent.  Lying down beside her, you stared at the ceiling of the tent for a long time.  

***

“So, hey, do you want to go shopping after school?” you asked Tasha as you waited for your science teacher to arrive.  

“Sorry, I can’t, I’m supposed to hang out--”

“With Daehyun,” you finished, rolling your eyes.  “Do you even study anymore?”

“It’s a study date, you grinch,” she responded, gently rapping her knuckles against your skull.

“Ugh, do you ever do anything but study anymore?” you immediately groused, grinning at her offended expression.  

“You literally just implied--”

“Givest thou me thine attention!”

Your head whipped around to find a grinning Buoxian standing at the head of your science class.  Fortunately for your nerves, he looked completely normal, eyes as warm as brown as they had been when you first met, and clothes firmly on.

“I fear thy teacher is debilitated.  Thou mayest name me Mr. Bian, and I shall be thy teacher for the duration of the semester.”

You looked around to see everyone’s reaction to his odd way of speaking, but to your surprise they were acting as if nothing were out of the ordinary.  “Tasha,” you hissed.

She raised an eyebrow to indicate that she was listening as she pulled her textbook out of her backpack.

“What do you think of the substitute?”

Tasha gave him a quick once over, and then grinned over at you.  “Pretty cute.”

You chuckled nervously.  “Yeah, but like...why is he talking all funny?”

She spared you a glance before diving back into her book bag for her notebook.  “What are you talking about? I didn’t hear an accent. You don’t think he’s from Cali?”  She grinned and batted her eyelashes. “Maybe he’s a mysterious man with a past, from the wilds of Nevada!”

You laughed nervously.  “Probably.” Feeling eyes on you, you looked up to find Buoxian staring at you, an amused glint in his eye.  

“Class, turns’t thou in thy compendiums to page 153.”  Smiling knowingly at you, he leaned back against the desk, crossing his arms.  “Today, thou whilst learn about dark matter.”

***

After the bell rang, after everyone had filed out, after you had sent Tasha ahead first, you sat in your chair, glaring at Buoxian, who hummed quietly, obviously pleased with himself as he blatantly examined you.  “What are you doing?”

“Watching thou.”

“Cute. What are you doing here, at my school?”

He tilted his head like a curious puppy.  “We are thy substitute.”

Standing suddenly, you rushed to the door, quickly closed it before turning back to him.  “Why are you here?” you hissed. He opened his mouth. “And if you give me one more excuse about being a substitute teacher, then I’m going to scream.”

A ghostly set of nictitating eyelids blinked over Buoxian’s eyes, so quickly that if you hadn’t been staring at him, then you would have missed it.  Grimacing, you pressed yourself closer against the door.