Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans. Dracaina Malfoy is my character.

"Azarath, metrion, zinthos. Azarath, metrion, zinthos. Azarath, metrion, zinthos. Aza—"

CRASH!

Raven's eyes flew open, meditation interrupted. Her power flickered in the depths of her mind, the momentary loss of control noted. She sighed, aggravated. Grabbing a thread of power, she quickly spun her energy back into the distaff form. Raven sent up a quick prayer of gratitude to her tutor for insisting that she learn the basic emergency control techniques. Anyone who lived with Beast Boy needed them.

"Uhh, sorry Raven. Didn't mean to disturb you, he he…" The small changeling's voice died away as the most forbidding member of the Teen Titans turned to face him. Beast Boy would never tell her, but sometimes Raven scared him even more than the big red guy in her head. The purple-eyed sorceress was surpassed in creepy-factor only by Slade. Her cool voice and grayish skin, aided by the fact that now every one of them knew down to the mutated bone that she was capable of dark magic, merely served to accentuate the fact. Beast Boy sometimes thought that if Raven would wear her hood down more, she wouldn't be so creepy. It was the hood that did it, the shining purple eyes and emotionless voice from the darkness that unnerved him. She was—pretty—without it. Delicate features and fine bones, a soft mouth that rarely showed its softness. Starfire's open, mind-blowing beauty was more his style, but Raven fascinated him.

"Hmph. I'm going out."

"WHAAAT!?! Raven, come on! Halloween has got to be your favorite holiday, and you're LEAVING US!?!" Raven might think that Beast Boy's overreaction is amusing, but for the fact that Starfire is grieved. Since the Puppet King fiasco, Raven has made it her unofficial mission to make sure Starfire remains innocent. Raven remembers that in Warp's future, the future where Starfire vanished, she herself is insane. She would wrap Starfire in cotton wool if she could, would shelter and protect her. This desire alone is unusual enough to make her distance herself from the other girl. If Starfire is a weakness—and Raven is self-aware enough to know that she is—no one can know of it. But Raven cannot stop her eyes softening from amethysts to violets. Perhaps she might not even if she could.

"Yes, friend Raven. Will you not stay with us? I confess that I do not understand the tricking—or is it treating?—but I am sure it will be most enjoyable!" Starfire's green eyes are alight from their previous confusion, voice nearly begging Raven to stay. The fact that Raven wants to grant that request is what makes her decide that she must leave. The softness at the Tower is making her soft. Trigon's daughter doesn't want sugar today, she wants to drink blood.

"I do like Halloween. That's why I'm celebrating somewhere else."

Starfire was floating in midair, but now drifts down to the floor. Only Raven understands the possible significance of that, but Robin understands Starfire. "It's okay, Star. Raven probably just doesn't like our watered-down Halloween. She'll be back in a couple hours."

"We are putting water in the 'hallowed een'? Why would we do that?"

Cyborg grins. "He means, Star, that Halloween was something different a long time ago. We've changed the customs and the reasons for them. We've watered it down."

Robin smiles slightly, watching them. He loves Starfire, honestly, but—she's too innocent. Robin likes being the protector, but he hates feeling trapped. Starfire would need him too much and too often. Cyborg, now…Cyborg and Starfire have possibilities.

Raven has already left. She 'heard' Starfire's hurt and Robin's empathy, but she's still leaving. The pseudo-Wiccans at her favorite café are irritating, but less trouble than staying at Titans' Tower. Not wanting to deal with the garish streets, she simply fades into the shadow and reappears in Stygian.

The café is quiet and dark, and Raven immediately calms. But something is here that shouldn't be, something vaguely familiar. Something dark.

Oddly enough, that only calms Raven more. She is used to darkness; light is what throws her off balance. She strides calmly to the bar and orders her usual: vanilla spiced chai. The girl behind the bar—and she's a new one, a haughty blonde with grey eyes—nods coolly and turns to make it. Raven goes to 'her' table, the one closest to the stage, in the light. Someone else is there.

Raven stops dead. A rush of something primal—the darkness in Beast Boy, something they finally have in common—runs through her. Pink hair and skin grey as hers, unaccustomed quiet clothes. Jinx, and she's off her game. Raven can sense it; a fey mood lurks around the other sorceress. There will be blood tonight.

As if sensing Raven's mind in her own—and perhaps she can, Jinx is famed for her tricks—the girl looks up. Raven stifles a gasp. Jinx's eyes are not their usual cotton-candy pink. They are blood-red, the slitted pupils vicious. But she smirks and waves a languid hand. It is an invitation that Raven chooses to accept.

"Good evening," Jinx murmurs. Raven nods a hello and takes the chai the blonde girl from the counter offers her. Jinx smiles at the girl, who flashes fangs back.

"You two know each other?" One eyebrow is lifted. Raven has seen enough humans to know that the pretty blonde is something else entirely.

Jinx's grin now can only be described as maliciously lascivious. "Dracaina and I…dated… for a while. She's got good moves."

Raven chokes on her chai. She'd thought Jinx had a crush on Victor Stone, aka Cyborg, who has nothing whatsoever in common with this blonde.

Jinx laughs, but the sound is somehow off. There's someone else laughing too, and a napkin wafts itself under Raven's nose, cleaning the chai off the table. The pretty girl—the pretty girl Jinx was fucking, which was just weird beyond belief--pulls up a chair and sits next to Jinx. Her eyes dance with humor, but her aura is oddly sympathetic. She moves like a fighter or a thief.

"Hello. You must be Raven." A cool drawl—English, high-class, but there's something else behind it, her mind notes. "Jinx has mentioned you. A Teen Titan, yes?"

"Yes. From the Tower. Why? Need to know lawkeepers so you know who to avoid?" Raven's eyes widen as she realizes what she has just said. This immediate hostility is unusual for her.

Jinx's eyes widen also, but her companion merely laughs. "Let's have a look at you, then." White-blonde lashes half-veil grey eyes coyly. "So you know who to arrest, my name is Dracaina." A long-fingered pale hand lifts, and the sudden rush of air blows back Raven's hood.

"Hmph. You use air?"

Jinx snickers. "Why would she tell you? Dracaina keeps her secrets." Her eyes are still red, and Raven decides she's had quite enough of that look. Pink suits Jinx much better, and Raven cannot believe she just had that thought. Maybe the Tower would be better. Jinx isn't the only one off her game, and Raven never wants to fight Jinx at anything less than her personal best. She knows Jinx would win. Raven thinks this might be a battle, but she doesn't know what the stakes are and she doesn't know how to fight it and she HATES not knowing these things.

Dracaina rises, and Jinx grabs her hand. "Off so soon?"

Dracain shrugs gracefully. "Break's over." She leans down to murmur in Jinx's ear, and the sight of blonde hair on pink makes Raven want to break something. She takes a deep breath and finishes her chai.

Jinx turns her—still red, why are they still red?—eyes back to Raven. "Where were we?" Her eyes harden. Rose quartz, not rose petals. "Oh yes, you were insulting my choice of company."

"Your choice of company needs insulting."

"Ladies, take it outside. The boys might like a catfight, but Jinx, dear, you'll wreck the place." It's Dracaina's voice, and the sound merely irritates Raven more. Jinx nods tersely and whirls out of her seat. Raven follows, not sure why she wants to fight but knowing she does.

Outside Stygian the atmosphere is a little too cliché: damp fog, full moon, and a furious witch. Jinx makes the first move, turning to punch Raven in the face. Raven blocks, but barely. She's surprised that Jinx would use hand-to-hand tactics rather than her typical bad-luck hexes. The other girl must still be fey.

Raven's eyes glow white as she releases her dark power, flinging Jinx backward. Jinx gets off one hex before slamming into the wall, pink hair bright against the dark stone. The hex was a good one. The earth beneath Raven begins to crumble away, and she resorts to levitation. Her inattention is costly.

Jinx's foot slams into her jaw, sending Raven into Stygian's back door. Then Jinx is on her, and…and there's a hot mouth on hers, cool fingers digging into her arms, Jinx's body pressed tight against her own. Raven's lips part instinctively, giving Jinx what she wants. Jinx tastes like honeyed herbal tea and cold water; she smells like chai. Then Jinx snarls into Raven's mouth and bites. Raven moans; this is what she wanted at the Tower, this what Starfire can't give: the taste of copper in her mouth and a demanding leg between her thighs. And Jinx is gone, flipping away into the darkness.

Raven sags against the wall, purple hair mussed from Jinx's fingers. She'd been right about Jinx's mood. There had been blood tonight.