Review Responses:

The Nephilim King Michael: This one is a mix of dark and fluffy.

Patrat7777: I was on a mini planned hiatus. Thank you for the praise :) , and I plan on getting everything I've started on the site done. It might take a long while, though.

He23t: Yeah, the tension actually got heavier than I originally intended, but this chapter has a few calmer moments.

Glenn Leider: Your review actually made me giddy, because I'm kind of striving for Malus to be that hate-worthy. And I agree about Simon, he's going to have a few moments later on.

Guest: Hehe, the dildo has another appearance coming up as well, and it's a scene I cannot wait to write.

maximumalexride: Oh Glob! I'm glad you're enjoying it! Thanks a ton!

April7000222: Thank you! I think I've finally developed a way to maximize my posting speed, so hopefully this is the last long update gap for awhile.

Chapter 11: The Art of Hesitation

Marceline reared back onto her feet, clutching her forehead and hissing like a wounded snake as the wizard moaned in equal parts pain and relief below her. Stupid, stupid, stupid impulse control, She thought, trying to regain some sense of balance and work through whether or not she was angry at herself for letting things get that serious, or for chickening out of sinking her teeth into the wizard's neck. Stupid, stupid, STUPID Marceline…

As her vision cleared, she realized that the answer was both, and that she was also pretty pissed at herself for head-butting his nose rather than just halting her momentum.

"Glob dammit, I've been a vegetarian for 379 years, and I almost blew it eating that sack of crap!" She shouted, kicking the wizard as she spoke. Then, in self argument, she screamed, "But he was going to off us!"

"Why would that make you want to eat me?" He mumbled in reply, wincing as his stupid decision to speak again attracted her attention to him.

"It's tradition," The Vampire replied cooly, glaring downward with the disgust one would level at a cockroach already squished. "If someone threatens a Vampire's life or the life of their close relations, the Vampire eats them. It's one of the reasons nobody's messed with my kind for so long, even after I managed to convince the rest of my people it shouldn't be a mandatory law, only an option if the Vampire sees fit. Realizing you might be eaten is a helluva deterrent. Probably would have made you think twice before coming after us, you tub of lard."

She kicked him again. As she had lectured him on Vampire bylaws (which, depressingly, she had completely memorized, as well as modernized), internally she was feeling complete shock at her actions.

The incident with the cowboy and his house had certainly unnerved her, but not in a way where she had wanted to lumping eat someone herself. If anything, it had made her realize how glad she was that she had shifted to relying purely on the color red for sustenance, rather than praying on the living.

Suddenly, her mind landed on her recent nightmares, and she swallowed in terror. Glob… what if she was revert—

"Please, let me live!" The wizard shouted, crashing her train of thought, and immediately cursed in pain afterwards, his injuries hindering his speaking and slurring his words. "I promise I'll skip town! I've learned my lesson! You are not to be trifled with!"

"…I don't want to end you," Marceline whispered, staring at him with a mix of derision and pity. "It wouldn't be right. Not like this. But I'm sure as churros not letting you walk away to come back after us later. And I am NOT taking you hostage or any crap like that. I don't want to see your ugly mug ever again, after today."

She fell silent, trying to come to a solution and going nowhere mentally. Marceline grew bored of thinking quickly, then snickered, realizing she could have him do her work for her via an empty threat. "You have a minute to find an answer to this dilemma, or imma nerf you, mang."

"What! You just said! I—" He fell silent realizing resistance was useless. "…So, you want to make sure I'm not a danger to you or your friend, right?" He asked, his speech slurring from his injuries. She nodded, and he gave a long, pained sigh. "…I get my powers from a ring I wear on my finger. If you take it off, I'm as harmless as a puppy."

"If you had lied, I would have been able to tell. Smart idiot," Marceline replied, bearing a satisfied smile. "Hand it over."

With some difficulty due to his injuries, he eventually pulled off a silver ring encrusted with a small circular ruby. By now, night had completely fallen, but even in the small light provided by the waning moon it shone as if alight with flame.

She snagged it from his hand, and after a moment nodded. "Oh, yeah. Definitely enchanted. Powerful stuff too. If you didn't suck so much, maybe you could have put up a fight." She kicked him yet again, almost daring him to ask her not to. "I'll be up all night, so if you want to be an idiot, like you are, and try to steal it back and give us trouble again, come on down. I won't be so lenient."

With that, Marceline took off and swooped down to a lower part of the mountain. She felt somewhat satisfied, having reaped some catharsis by pummeling him, yet her concern was greater. Her temper was starting to get the better of her at a rate that made her uneasy… or maybe it wasn't even her temper.

"He's dead. DEAD. I know he's dead," She murmured, landing on a rock and cupping her head in her hands. "So I'm dreaming about him… big deal. I killed him. I KILLED him." The Vampire couldn't bear to voice the notion that he might be able to force his way back from death.

"Glob, DAMMIT, Malus," She hissed, tossing a boulder off to the right and into a rock-face. "Why did you make me choose? Why did you have to become a monster…? How did I let you become one? And how… how did I nearly let you make ME into one?"

How could you kill the only person who ever understood you in cold blood?

His dying words echoed in her ears, but rather than contemplating them, she sighed, and shook them from her head. Going in circles thinking about the past was a waste of time.

Marceline's thoughts then turned to Finn. He must be so torn up… I need to stop smacking around his emotions, I know how hard it is for him to deal with this stuff, and how confused he must be, and I just keep twisting him up inside. I hope he hasn't done anything rash. Eh, it's Finn. What's the worst that could—

"THERE'S A ROGUE VAMPIRE ON THE LOOSE GLOB WHAT AM I THINKING!" Marceline shrieked, moving so quickly she broke the sound barrier for the first time since 249 years prior (in a rather ridiculous event involving a baby she had unintentionally won through Oklahoma Poke Em Poker) and leaving a dent roughly the size and shape of a circular above-ground pool.

15 Minutes prior

It took about two minutes for Finn to figure out which button stopped the beeping (time he spent constantly worrying that it was some kind of "Marceline's-escaping" alarm), which was slightly understandable since up until that point he hadn't realized it HAD buttons. After pressing a small, rectangular one, a hologram suddenly appeared in between the two ends of the Marcy-Polo.

The hologram was of Princess Bubblegum, who waved and casually asked, "Sup?"

"Whoa! Hey PB! I didn't know the Marcy Polo had video!" Finn replied, his spirits immediately rising now that he wasn't alone.

The Princess rolled her eyes at the name, but smiled at the pun nonetheless.

"Yep! It can also make coffee if you have any beans and water, and I've attached sensors so… um… well I know when Marceline's not around and that way we can talk without her…" Bubblegum winced at Finn's look of contempt, and sighed. "I know, I know, but I'm pretty sure if she knew I was using the Marcy Po… the device to keep tabs on you guys, she'd break it in an instant."

"I mean… I figured you would want to talk to her, though," Finn replied, blushing as he added, "you know… since you two used to be together." He was beginning to see why neither girl had informed him of their relationship, as bringing it up made him feel whacked out.

Taking the awkwardness in stride, the Princess shrugged uneasily. "Talking to me would just set her off, Finn, or else I would love to… And don't keep it secret or anything if she, you know, asks, and if she does want to… talk, tell her we can." She coughed quietly, rubbing the spot on her neck Marceline tended to get sugar-crazy from without thinking. "Is she doing alright?"

Finn's face fell and he shook his head. "I… I keep saying the wrong thing around her, Prubs…" He muttered, plopping down on his tush. "I think she's really dealin' with some bad mojo right now, but I swore I wouldn't bring any of that junk up since it makes her feel so bird-poopy, so I feel kind of stuck."

The Princess nodded, rubbing her arm as she slowly zoned out, thoughts running through her brain at the speed of light. Finn, used to when his past-crush got all thinky and broke out her mind-mounds for some legit calculations (he thought it was adorbz), waited patiently for her reply.

"Well, Finn, I'd just keep being you, honestly," Bubblegum finally replied, smiling as he blushed lightly. "Marceline appreciates your personality very much so, and positivity is what she needs right now… if she does lash out, I wouldn't blame yourself. Okay?"

After breathing deeply for a few seconds to qualm his heart's flutters at all the indirect compliments, Finn nodded. "That sounds legit. How are you doing? Any puppy deets? What about her journal?"

Bubblegum frowned, and replied, "They should be coming in any day now, and I've been trying to convince myself that violating her personal writing is excusable. It's not that I think it's that bad, but I'm pretty sure Marceline would do some gnarly things to me if she found out I had it, let alone that I've READ her deep, dark, luscious secrets." The Princess cackled spontaneously before clearing her throat.

"I also have bad news. Bad like that one time the Ice King tried to play Jake's Viola. The Lich has escaped from Prismo's realm and based on an account from Billy, who… well, we already thought he was dead, but Death brought him back temporarily, and Jake and I went to visit him. Sorry I haven't contacted you sooner, but I wanted to think things over, and didn't want you to worry."

"Well donkey poop," Finn replied, his head slumping into his hand. "I can't believe that undead fart's back again already. And Billy…" His head slumped further, Bubblegum trying to muster a comforting smile in support.

"I know Finn. It's horrible. And…" She bit her lip. "It gets worse. Billy said that the Lich is heading north, and then managed to piece together a target the monster wanted to possess… which was BMO, who had disappeared without a trace when Jake and I rushed back to check on her. I'm… really sorry, Finn."

"…That lumping jerkwad!" Finn shouted, grasping blindly for a rock and smashing it with a toss against the wall. "Is there any way to…?"

"Track him? I don't know," The Princess replied dejectedly. "I'm bustin' my gray matter trying to come up with any means to find him, because it sounds like, per usual, his plot is quite lethal. The good news is that he is probably weak, and therefore moving slowly."

"You said he was heading north? That's where Marcy and I are going, accordion to her," Finn stated. "Maybe we could try to intercept him?"

"…Hmm, perhaps," Bubblegum whispered, scratching her chin before sighing. "Um, I guess I really should talk to her… whenever she comes back, let me—"

"FINN!" Screeched Marceline, streaking into the cave, her entire body relaxing as she realized he was just peachy. "Oh thank Glob… I can't believe I was enough of a fool to run off when there's a rogue Vampi…re." She finished lamely, her eyes having zeroed in on the Marcy-Polo in confusion.

"Marceline! I'm so sorry I was being crotchety," Finn shouted, running over to Marceline and hugging her tightly.

"Ummm… Okay… no, really, you're good I'm…" Marceline muttered, squirming a little at the sudden display of affection, but sighing after a moment and returning the embrace, enjoying the small flow of warmth. "Aww… come here you weenie. You don't have to apologize at all. I'm sorry for my crap, Finn."

"Your crap is the best crap ever, it's alright," Finn replied in true Finn-fashion.

They stayed like that for several moments, and probably wouldn't have parted for a few more if they had not been interrupted by a quiet cough, and Princess Bubblegum saying, "I really, really don't want to ruin this moment, but I've just been staring at Marceline's ear and hair at an awkward angle for some time now."

Not only did that ruin the moment, it was enough to make Marceline jump back in shock, panting as she stared at the Princess's hologram with disdain. "I thought I saw your face on that thing, Bonnie… not surprised you found a way to spy on me."

Finn frowned at her words, and she glared at him in return. "What? I've told her before… I don't need her looking out for me…"

"It's just because she has the heart-butterflies for you, Marcy," Finn replied, flapping his hands over his heart.

"…Um, yes, I suppose," Bubblegum said, averting her eyes from both of them. "You know I…" She trailed off, unable to find the right words.

"Yeah, I know," Marceline said with a sigh, the Princess looking up in surprise. "I'm assuming there's another reason you chose until now to call?"

Bubblegum nodded, gesturing to Finn. "I was just talking to Finn about an unfortunate development: the Lich has returned to Ooo."

The wide range of expressions that flitted across Marceline's face in a span of only a second was something to behold. At first she seemed to shrink on the spot, her eyes those of a child, drawn wide in terror, before they narrowed into red, glowing slits of unspeakable malice, until they finally settled on surprise, the Princess's actual words having finally gotten through a thousand-year-wall of memories.

"What do you mean returned to Ooo? Isn't he supposed to be sealed in the tree?" Marceline asked after a moment, her voice low and harsh and her eyes, while no longer blood red, still glowing and now accusatory.

Bubblegum couldn't meet her eyes as she whispered, "He escape a while ago, and—"

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME BONNIBEL, ARE YOU REALLY THAT DAMN DENSE!" Marceline screamed, her hands desperate for something to wring.

"Jeez, you patoot, calm down! It's… I didn't want you to worry!" Bubblegum retorted, her voice rising before she sighed and shook her head. "Marcy I… please, I don't want to fight about this."

"Yeah, well you're not the one yelling, are you?" The Vampire hissed in return, turning away, though hearing the Princess say her pet name had definitely won over some brownie points.

"Could you let me explain?" Bubblegum pleaded, and though she kept her back turned, Marceline nodded. It took several minutes for the candy girl to catch the Vampire up on the Lich's recent activity, and at the end Marceline sighed.

"So, you want me to hunt him down? Fine, I'll do it," She said, shrugging in mock confidence when facing that monster was the last thing she wanted to do at the moment. Her eyes flickered over Finn, who had been standing quietly as the two royals had engaged in discussion. "Do you think he's able to deal with the Lich, Bonnibel? I mean…"

"He already has, Marceline. It's sweet that you're looking out for Finn, though," Bubblegum replied with a smile, only receiving a shrug and grumbles in response.

"We're doing good PB! Today, we helped out an old ex-cowboy!" Finn shouted, frowning as his comment did nothing to ease the tension in the room.

"Oh that's awesome," The Princess quickly replied, staring at Marceline as she spoke. "Um… just to let you guys know, if you ever want to call me, you push the little red button."

"What button turns calls off?" Marceline asked after a moment, her voice finally calm.

"Oh, the small, rectangular—" Bubblegum's voice and image died as the Vampire pressed said button, sighing and glaring at the Marcy-Polo.

"…HOW DID I FALL FOR THAT?!" Bubblegum shouted, smacking her head with her hand before raising her second and cupping her face in them, lowering herself into her desk. She moped for a moment before shrugging. "Eh, went better than last time."

"Can I please break this?" Marceline hissed, turning to Finn to find him staring at her in disbelief.

"Marcy… why are you so mean to PB?" He asked point blank, his face scrunched up. "I… I feel for FP the way you feel for the Princess, and I would never talk to FP like that." The Vampire's face fell drastically, and Finn gulped. "No, no, no! I'm sorry… I…" He stuck his hand in his hat and scratched his head.

"You know the answer, Finn," She replied with a sigh, casually tossing the purple device to the ground. "Because she tries to get close. You think you're bad? Ohhhh, nooooo." Finn frowned, the dripping venom emanating from her voice somehow worse than the bark he had anticipated.

"You're NOTHING compared to Bonnibel," Marceline continued sweeping her arms out and making a big show of her distaste. "'I'm just trying to help, Marceline!' she says when she knows what talking about my past does to me, and she won't lump off and leave it where it belongs. 'All your problems could be helped if you'd just talk to me,' she says, so blindly arrogant that she can't imagine there's things she can't comprehend. SOOOO—"

She finally caught Finn's face, and he nearly looked sick. "…Hey, don't be like that," Marceline muttered, beginning to feel disgusted with herself as well. "I… I do care, okay? I care about her. A ton, enough that I've kept my feelings secret from everyone we know for her sake. But half the time I feel like she's trying to dissect me, and I always worry it's going to rub off on you."

Finn's eyes widened. "Marcy, you know I don't want to do any junk like that, I just want to be here for when you're down, and need someone to play electric limbo with, or play music with, or—"

"AHHHHH!"

"…Scream in deathly fear?" Finn finished weakly, his complexion fading to match the off-white of his companion as the shout from outside echoed through the cave.

"Stay inside," The Vampire hissed, her tone tense and cutting through the now suffocating silence of the night. She shifted into invisibility and then bolted out of the cave, deciding to fly high in order to obtain a good vantage point.

There was no need, as the stifling, salty odor of blood pounded into her nostrils as soon as she left the cave mouth. Trying to calm her raging heartbeat, equally a product of terror and hunger, she slowly drifted to the scent's point of origin. There was no need to rush. Nothing that had lost that much blood could still be alive.

Sure enough, she was correct when she came to the body, her empty eyes scanning a haphazard smattering of red upon rock. It was obviously the Fire Wizard, she could tell from his smell and the little chunks of pink, and as she mutely studied his demise, she searched her heart for pity.

You've done much worse, Came Malus's cursed voice, her lip trembling in its wake.

Ignoring his words, Marceline found she could conjure no true sympathy, but mustered the decency to construct a makeshift grave, taking a slab and carving "FW" upon it before slamming it into the ground.

The moon, having been covered by clouds, now lent its light to the grizzly scene, and with its advent, blood the Vampire had failed to notice caught her eye. It was painted on a nearby wall, and her entire body began to shake as she realized it was curved into words. Vampiric , in fact.

"He's next," She whispered, tears flowing freely down her face as her head began to shake. "Glob, GLOB DAMMIT, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!"

The Vampire Queen quickly turned from fearful to enraged, screaming, "COME OUT! FIGHT ME YOU LITTLE PRICK! YOU LEAVE HIM ALONE OR I'LL—" She froze, and then began to speed back to the cave, breaking the sound barrier once more. Marceline knew she had just fallen pray to the oldest trick in the Vampire-feeding book; baiting.

The amount of anger, self-contempt, and worry that coursed through her mind in that split second was enormous, and as such she became quite discombobulated when she collided with something else travelling in midair.

Marceline spun out and nearly crashed into the mountain-side before catching herself and landing upon it on all fours, realizing in horror that what she had run into was the rogue Vampire and that the collision had slathered her with blood. The Queen caught the faintest of glimpses, noting a black cloak and dark-gray skin, before he became invisible, and presumably began flying away.

Demonic instincts being withheld, as she wanted nothing more than chase him down and to rip out his throat right now, she screamed out an obscenity that would make the Lich blush profusely, sent out a burst of telepathic force in his general direction she knew would likely do nothing but hope would cause him to crash headfirst into a tree and break his worthless spine (despite knowing that wouldn't kill him), and flew into the cave.

"FINN!" She screamed once again that night, sighing in relief to the degree she plum fell out of the air and landed on the cold floor when she viewed the boy in a combative stance, his red sword drawn and a gray arm that THANK GLOB was not his slowly pouring out thick, gooey blood. In fact, he seemed to be perfectly fine; slightly terrified and covered in Vampire-blood, but fine.

Marceline, on the other hand, could not believe she had nearly let such an obvious baiting tactic work on her, and it took several minutes of harrowed tears and jumbled speech before she could even begin to piece together the comforting word's Finn was trying to direct at her.

As she raised her head to meet his eyes, tears still falling from her own, a small part of her noted that this was a point of no return; that she was melding Finn permanently into her complete mess of a life. Marceline let the feeling wash over as he smiled down upon her sadly.

"I was so afraid I was going to find you dead," She whispered bitterly, pulling him into the tightest hug he had ever experienced. Finn did his best to maintain some semblance of breathing as she squeezed, her thin limbs digging into his back like chains. Somehow, despite the pain, it felt nice. He was pretty sure he would turn blue if she didn't relent a little, but made no comment about it.

"Pfff, please… there's only one Vampire I know who could take me out," He teased quietly instead, ignoring his growing blush and patting her head.

The undead girl giggled, slacking her grip as she realized she was crushing him. She was about to respond when a familiar voice she had grown quite sick of sounded in her mind.

I wouldn't be so sure about that—

"MALUS YOU SHUT THE UN-LIVING FUCK UP!" Marceline screamed, blinking quietly after her outburst bounced around the cave, slightly in awe at just how angry she had sounded. And yet… she felt so much BETTER. Free, even. Whether from her own mind or outside influence she knew not, but that was a question she would answer later; for now she was content to bask in the sensation of relief.

"…M-Marcy? You okay? And who's Malus?" Finn asked cautiously, and she couldn't exactly fault him for that. Not after she had just screamed at a voice inside her head, and certainly not after the string of days she'd been having.

"Better than okay, mang. I actually feel… good!" She replied, picking Finn up, placing his stomach on her hand, and spinning him on her palm a few times, the boy laughing at her sudden antics.

"That's great dude! I'm glad," He replied when she set him down, beaming brightly as he stumbled around due to dizziness.

"It's all thanks to you too," Marceline whispered, the smile that had suddenly gripped her face curving upwards even higher. "You're the best, Finn." She hugged him again, easing off of the squeezing this time and simply pressing against his bod gently.

"…Aww, shucks," The hero replied, obviously moved beyond words as he returned the embrace. "I… I don't know, I just…"

"Kept going when everyone else would have given up," She replied, and despite her new found happiness tears began to well back into her eyes. "Even Bonnie wouldn't, but you just kept chasing, kept talking, kept… Finning?" Her voice stuttered badly as she sniffled.

"Aw, Marceline, don't start crying again…" Finn whispered, his voice sinking as he mistook her waterworks for grief.

"They're tears of joy, you doink," The Vampire Queen laughed, nuzzling into his neck. "It's like all the stupid anger and sadness that's been smacking me around is dancing out of my face."

"Pff, what? You're acting downright goofy! But I'm glad," He repeated, knowing full well she was aware his heart was beating rapidly at all the contact.

"Believe me, I am too," Marceline whispered. "…But we need to have some serious discussions." She ended the hug, gazing at him with a blank look.

"Lay 'em on me," Finn encouraged after a moment, sensing his friend really was in the middle of a breakthrough of sorts. For a moment, she coughed, and seemed to be near backtracking from her statement, but after a sigh, she began to speak.

"First off, you… you should know about my past," Marceline murmured, as if speaking those words was akin to drinking poison. "Not… not all of it Finn, because… because some of it I just can't." Finn nodded sympathetically as he witnessed how painful it was to even mention her memories, her eyes clenching shut as she balled her fists so tightly her nails pierced her own skin. "But, you've had to deal with so much of it, from my dad, to… well, I think we might be dealing with someone else from it. A Vampire named… Malus."

Her voice caught as she spoke that name, and Finn winced, almost not wanting her to continue after seeing her so close to complete joy and now spinning back into pain.

"He… he was a monster," She choked out. "The King of the Vampires, and eventually, I usurped him by killing him. It's not a decision I'm proud of, but I didn't have much of a choice," The Vampire Queen added as Finn's face fell at the mention of murder.

"And as flat out wonked-out as it sounds, I think somehow he's regained influence in the mortal plain. At the least, that rogue vampire seemed to be in league with him. I've been hearing his voice in my head lately, and every time I've slept, he's haunted my dreams." She flinched as the exact content of them filled her mind, but refrained from telling the hero that in most of them he ended up dead and painted in his own blood.

Finn simply nodded, letting her speak her piece despite the wide assortment of questions and feelings coursing through him.

"But, when I shouted out his name, it almost felt like I… expelled him," Marceline said, smiling again at that feeling of freedom. "And now, we have to hunt down that jack-hole that tried to eat you and is aiding him, if it IS him, and also, obviously go after the Lich. I understand how important the Lich is, but at the same time, we're kind of being hunted down by a rogue Vampire, so…" She trailed off, touching her index fingers together and hoping he would agree.

"So we just kick that guy's ugly mug and then the Lich's?" Finn asked with a smile, cracking his knuckles.

The Vampire Queen returned it, lifting her bass into the air with moxie. "Oh y to the eah, BOI! And, um… if there's anything you really want to ask me, just do it, alright? Like… I'll tell you more about my past too, most likely via that memory gunk Ash used to try to win me back that one time, but it sucks that I've been making you feel so constricted around me. I…" She fell silent as Finn placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Marcy, it's alright," He said reassuringly, squeezing. "I know how hard this biz is for you, and…" He hiccupped a little as a stray tear fell from his eye. "It means a lot to me that you're cool with telling me. Like, for real."

"I'm, I'm glad you appreciate it, because I honestly turn into a complete mess when I spill out my heart-guts," Marceline said with a small smile. "And, on that note, I think we're both due for some nice rest. We still need to iron some crap out, but I think we'd better save that for the morrow. As in tomorrow. Not Bonnibel's tweaking bird," She clarified, her friend giggling halfheartedly as he relived getting bombed by said bird's stuff.

"Uh, one thing," Finn replied, looking down at his now blood-stained clothes. "Like, I forgot to bring anything else to wear with me because… I'm foolhardy? And now they're kind of stained with Vampire blood… sooo… shopping tomorrow?"

Marceline grinned evilly at his words, replying, "Ooooh, boy. I've always wanted to pick out your clothing. I am going to make you look sooo rough and grimy."

Finn smiled uneasily, imagining himself dressed in some of the outfits Marceline wore, and regretting mentioning it in the first place. If only he could have witnessed the clothing the Vampire ran through her mind after he was far away in dreamland. Instead, he made squeaky noises in his sleep while she stared at him with both amusement and glowing care, whispering under her breath, "Hehehehe, ass-less chaps. All the better to punch buns with."

The afterlife had been more or less what Malus had expected it to be, despite having never thought he would die; more prejudice, more pain, more isolation. Truth be told, if he had been a good little prisoner and quietly bided his power over time, he most likely could have broken out of the little cage Death had crafted him. Even in using his massive stores of strength to simply distract Death by attacking his prison's barriers, he had nearly found escape several times.

Malus however had lost most of his patience, a resource he had never garnered much of in the first place. The only thing he had lost more of was his humanity; but then again, he doubted anyone else had felt as much humanity course through them as he.

That thought brought the memory of the silky flow of blood, and as he was oft to do, Malus reveled in the reminiscence, his eyes rolling back ever so slightly and his lips smacking involuntarily. He knew that Death had mistakenly believed that the gloomy chamber he now resided in, with its seemingly endless boundaries, opaque ceiling and floor and pale gray obelisks, would bore him into submission, and maybe convince him to think about how close he had come to a successfully rendering a species extinct, but in reality it simply gave him an empty canvas with which to drown out his eyes and lurk in his mind's darkest fantasies.

And, in rare moments, the slain King would wonder if that was enough to sate his lust, but eventually, he would always decide against such thoughts of being content with what amounted to enslavement. There was too much he had left behind that he could still reap fruit from, and besides, Malus had never been content with survival. No, he was not Stormchild, a parasite that fed itself just long enough on the good graces and misguided kindness of that around it before shuffling the cards and finding a new hand to hold in hope of impossible empathy.

If he had been, he would have never feasted upon every last human he could find in retaliation for his years of imprisonment at that races hands, nor would he have drunken his own parents dry after he had turned and escaped. Survival was for the weak. The strong THRIVED, and Malus would do so again, regardless of cost.

His claws dug into the cold stone of the pillar he sat upon as the darkness swelled all around, his muted pupils searching for just one bloody shade of the color red in his prison, which he knew Death would never grant him. Soon, it would not be stone his hands grasped, but his betrayer's very neck. Well, not until after he made her truly pay for her crimes against him… not after he snapped her spirit as if it were but human bone between his fangs.

So she had rejected his mental influence for now; the foolish brat knew not what he planned. She had already proved her imagination for depravity was quite limited. Oh, how many images of that human boy's bloody body limp in his own arms had he placed in Marceline's pretty little head, but how LOVELY, how PAINED, how BROKEN she would be when he forced her to guzzle his life-hood with her own mouth.

Malus reared back, his howling, schizophrenic laughter exploding in thin air of his solitude. His jovial malice did not last long, as a small hum silenced his chortle. His index finger slipped into his cloaks inner-pocket and flung a small marble high into the air, a routine he was now quite familiar with.

As it fell into his outstretched palm, he hissed, "I already know you've failed, Iraneus." For what could have been an eternity, the communication-node remained silent, and yet Malus could feel the fear his pathetic servant exerted from the other end.

"…The boy is stronger than he looks, my lord," Came a quiet, dejected whisper, and the Vampire King was reminded slightly of the whines of the dogs he had once trained to hunt humans for him. "He… cut off my arm."

Then Marceline is going to rip you apart, welp, Malus thought as he smiled, imaging his bride's axe lifting limbs into the air with utter ease. "Tsk, tsk, all you had to do was capture him, and you couldn't even manage that?"

"…Sire, I—" Iraneus began, but Malus would had none of his pathetic excuses.

"If you request my presence again without him in your possession, I will burst your heart with my mind," Malus replied in a droll tone. "And next time, do get me a picture of Marceline if you can manage? I miss her form dearly."

"…I thought you wanted her dead, my lord?" Came his servant's confused reply. With these words, the Vampire's eyes softened, the past unwinding within his mind.

"I love you, Malus," She whispered airily, her breath so crisp, so tender… had he ever heard those words from another being before? If his mother and father had ever uttered them, his mind could not recall…

"We'll live forever; we'll fill this land, rebuild this world. You as its King, I as your Queen, together, side by side," She proclaimed boldly, delicately placing his gray fingers on her wedding band with her own slim, white members, her smile so filled with passion, so effortlessly quelling his hatred and shifting all his thoughts to love.

A tear welled in Malus's eyes before he could stop it, and rolled off his face into the eternity below. A fitting metaphor for what their love was to him now. "No, not dead," He whispered, cutting the link before Iraneus could utter another word.

The red, gleaming eyes of Malus, of pure hatred, pierced through the black gloom that could not hold him, longing to stare into hers once more. "I want her to understand," He rumbled, the muscles in his arms pulsing with livid tension. "How deep betrayal cuts, and what its price is in the end. And she will."

For the first time in his life, as he poured her another drought of fine, hearty Norwegian blood, and pressed the golden chalice to her lips, Malus felt whole. He had found nirvana. He had found all he needed in the world.

Malus's hand deftly gripped the old wound, where Marceline had impaled the stake that had ripped him from everything he had built. In the back of his mind, he heard her sobs, her sobs of weakness, her sobs of false love, her sobs of false guilt, and he wanted to rip her heart from her body and swallow it whole.

"She will be my queen, and this world will remember the name it would not dare utter centuries ago," The Vampire King hissed, lowering his face into his cloak. "And I will wear that pathetic human's skin as a pelt. Sleep well, Stormchild. I will rip you from my throne and make you mine again."

I apologize for leaving this for so long on such a harsh cliffhanger, but here is a giant chapter as a peace-offering. It took me a long time to get a lot of this where I wanted it to be (Marceline's thoughts, Finn's conversation with PB, Marcy and PB, and especially Malus), and in some cases for the inspiration to hit. In most cases though it was college burnout, and since it's now summer hopefully I can form some sort of schedule.

If this has any glaring error please point them out, because I always worry about that when posting after such a break.

It's probably become fairly obvious at this point that this fic goes into some dark places, and the trade-off for me to keep a T rating in that sense is to limit any graphic descriptions. On that note, though, finally having Marceline break free from her angst was actually mentally relieving to write, and I hope her character moments came across big in this chapter.

Finally, Malus. My issue with the Lich is there's no inherent personality to get behind. Building off of that, my goal is to make Malus a complete character; there's obviously no denying that he's a monster, but I want him to be understandable. Probably not relatable, but at the least understandable. I really like how he came out, but holy cripes Batman do I not trust myself implementing OCs in established universes, so any criticism there would be much appreciated as well.

I had at least ten other things I wanted to mention but this A/N is already a monster, so thanks for reading and putting up with my updating. Some of the reviews on here make my day when I read them.