[Salone]

Lev swallowed a lump in his throat as the heart brushed gently against his foot. He stared for what seemed to him an eternity before he bent down, aching knees bringing him back up to stand with the heart clutched in the same hand that had once been impaled with both revolver and spike. He had seen many things in his life. Many hardships. But nothing terrified him more than what he couldn't see, the lurking beast that slept under his own skin. And yet he felt kinship in the being. A fellow spirit who had survived a bit longer than they were meant to, outlasting their welcome in the living world. Like two cockroaches huddling under the same rock. Inside his head, he could hear the demon's actual voice. A guttural sludge of rasping muck, a sound that he was unable to reproduce with Lev's vocal cords. It wanted him to eat the heart. It craved for it. The beast was hurt, starved for power, for flesh. This rotting organ meant so much to it.

Lev hung his head and sighed.

"Perhaps instead of taking backseat to my own destiny," he began, speaking with his eyes on the floor, "this has instead become my fate. A vessel, for this thing, this raving madman who claims to be son of god."

He looked up, staring at Kasdeja with hate. He his fingers clenched down on the heart as anger-filled adrenaline coursed through him, disguising his emotions as strength.

"But maybe this vessel can give madman a push in the right direction."

With that he raised the heart to his mouth and sunk teeth deeply into it, making one swift motion of the affair. The meat was disgusting. The smell was unbearable. Blood and dirt-filled chunks slid down his throat as he swallowed. He felt nauseous, sick, he felt himself spinning out of control...

And Na'lsa felt so very much alive.