the coals went so wild as they swallowed the rest
Title: the coals went so wild as they swallowed the rest
Fandom: Hemlock Grove
Series: On the Outside Looking In
Pairings: Peter/Roman, Miranda/Roman
Warnings: Creepy demon Nadia
Word Count: 1383
Disclaimer: If I owned it, Peter and Roman would make out.
Summary: There's always been something not quite right between her cousin and the Godfreys.
Peter should have known better than to get involved with Roman Godfrey. Destiny's cousin may only be half Romani but he was born with a wild heart not the chains of a true gadjo. He's always looked to the next road, the next far horizon, and before Hemlock Grove, Peter never had an issue with staying unattached.
But somehow this town is different.
From the moment that they meet, Roman and her cousin are drawn together. The attraction is magnetic, inescapable, even though their deeper natures should be shoving them apart. Destiny tries to warn Peter that werewolves and Upirs are ancient enemies and nothing good can come from tangling with the Godfrey's fated strings.
But Peter doesn't listen. Instead of leaving Roman to his own devices, her idiot cousin teams up with the Upir to hunt a murderer. The two of them start investigating the deaths in Hemlock Grove like they're playing Nancy Drew and the more time they spend together, the darker Destiny's dreams become.
The Romani dreams of crimson, bloody rivers of destruction. She dreams about her cousin being consumed by his own beast. Destiny wakes from these dreams shaking with the horror of them, shaking and determined to save Peter from himself. They've always been close - set apart from the rest of the clan by their strange abilities - and she doesn't want to see her dreams brought into life.
So Destiny agrees to help her cousin with his foolishness. At least this way, she can watch Peter's back for him and while her powers have a price, she pays it willingly.
Over the course of their search, she spends more time with Roman Godfrey than she ever wished to do and the Upir is not what she expected. Roman is strangely fragile, arrogant and insecure at the same time. He seems completely baffled by Peter's easy friendship, although he doesn't turn away.
Indeed, Destiny sees hunger, longing, and possessiveness beneath the Upir's icy mask and she knows her cousin well enough to know he feels the same.
Roman and Peter are dancing on the thin edge between love and obsession and Destiny doesn't know how to keep her cousin safe. The Romani can only weep as night after night her cousin's wolf is ripped to pieces and she can see that future occurring far too easily. Love or not, Roman would want to own Peter and he's never been the type to flourish in a cage.
So Destiny is relieved when Peter suddenly starts dating Letha. The girl may still be a Godfrey but at least she's not Upir and maybe once he gets his dick wet, her cousin will finally realize that Letha's world is not for him.
Except that Peter just keeps falling. He allows the Godfreys to dig themselves deeper into his life, starts talking about raising Letha's child as his own. Maybe it's the gadjo in him that wants to put down roots or maybe her cousin's just a fool. Only a fool would give up his face to make himself a Vargulf and then fail to kill his target anyway.
Her cousin has always been soft as well as wild; that's part of the reason Destiny has done her best to keep him safe. But even the Romani's powers cannot stop his heart from breaking when childbirth takes Letha. She grieves for Peter as he shatters and yet, this pain is what he needed to break free.
When her cousin runs from Hemlock Grove, Destiny's dreams stop bleeding and she breathes a deep sigh of relief. She monitors the Godfreys like she would any serpent in the garden but she does it from a distance. The Romani does not want to know the Upir more intimately. She does not need another monster in her life.
But then Lynda is arrested and Peter returns to this cursed city. She tries to tell her cousin that they have other options but he's too desperate to listen and somehow still drawn to Roman like a moth to candle-flame.
There's hurt between them now. Yet that's not enough to stop the two men's strange attraction and her dreams of death start up again.
Something twisted is growing in this town. Something is pulling Peter toward the Upir, toward destruction, and her cousin has no sense of self-preservation. He allows another woman, some blond tramp called Miranda, to get her hooks in him. Miranda cuckolds both of them, leading Peter and Roman around by their dicks, and Destiny thinks her cousin knows the truth even though he won't admit it. A werewolf should be able to scent the Upir on her skin.
As her dreams turn more despairing, she starts to believe that Roman's interest is part of the attraction. Because the threads of fate are tangled around her cousin and the Upir, a dark cult sniffing at their past for weaknesses. The Romani tries to warn Miranda off when her dreams scream of corruption but the foolish girl won't leave. She thinks that she's the heroine in some sweet fairy tale instead of a horror story; she doesn't know there's monsters in the dark.
Destiny knows. She can see her cousin's human skin grow thinner day by day and she worries desperately. She bleeds and pays and chokes on death to keep him safe but she cannot keep him from Roman Godfrey. Peter would hate her if she tried.
Fate comes to a head when the cultists come for Roman's daughter, a child of such power that Destiny can feel it on her skin. The men come with hate and weapons and her visions are no protection from the bullets in their guns.
But the Vargulf is. Peter changes off the moon to save both her and Nadia and the Romani weeps as the humanity fade out of his eyes. This moment is her nightmares made reality.
The Vargulf shreds the cultists firsts, paints the hallways with their blood. But when its enemies are dead, its hunger isn't sated, and those gold eyes turn to Destiny. She wraps herself around Nadia to shield her as best she can; power or not, the girl is still a child and the young should be protected. But that does not stop the Romani's trembling when the creature that was Peter begins to stalk her way; she can see her death reflected in the Vargulf's eyes.
But then Roman appears there in the doorway. He pulls the monster back, dodging the razor teeth that twist to snap at him.
“I know you're in there, Peter,” the Upir says and Destiny doesn't have the strength to tell him that he's wrong. She can only watch in shock as Roman wraps his hands around the Vargulf's jaws. The creature shrieks in pain when he begins to pull, flesh tearing into bloody strips from his inhuman strength. But where there should have been hunger or stark triumph, Destiny sees love on Roman's face.
“Come back to me,” he whispers. “Come back for Nadia.”
It shouldn't work. Once become a Vargulf, a Romani can't go back.
But the Upir keeps on pleading. He keeps on begging Peter not to leave him, power bleeding into his words even as he shoves his arm down the creature's throat.
And somehow her cousin answers. When Roman reaches for him, Peter reaches back.
Roman pulls her cousin from the Vargulf like some tortured butterfly until he's lying limp and naked in the Upir's arms. The man strokes Peter's hair, ignoring the blood and slime that coats his body from head to toe. The Upir murmurs something that makes the werewolf chuckle weakly and looking at them now, Destiny finally understands.
This thing between Roman and Peter is not a poison after all. She hasn't been dreaming about death, she's been dreaming of redemption. The Romani has been dreaming about love because what else in this world could tie two monsters to each other? What else could keep them human when they should be enemies?
Destiny can see the truth now; she can see what Peter needs and she will fight as hard for love as she has fought to set him free.
End
Fandom: Hemlock Grove
Series: On the Outside Looking In
Pairings: Peter/Roman, Miranda/Roman
Warnings: Creepy demon Nadia
Word Count: 1383
Disclaimer: If I owned it, Peter and Roman would make out.
Summary: There's always been something not quite right between her cousin and the Godfreys.
Peter should have known better than to get involved with Roman Godfrey. Destiny's cousin may only be half Romani but he was born with a wild heart not the chains of a true gadjo. He's always looked to the next road, the next far horizon, and before Hemlock Grove, Peter never had an issue with staying unattached.
But somehow this town is different.
From the moment that they meet, Roman and her cousin are drawn together. The attraction is magnetic, inescapable, even though their deeper natures should be shoving them apart. Destiny tries to warn Peter that werewolves and Upirs are ancient enemies and nothing good can come from tangling with the Godfrey's fated strings.
But Peter doesn't listen. Instead of leaving Roman to his own devices, her idiot cousin teams up with the Upir to hunt a murderer. The two of them start investigating the deaths in Hemlock Grove like they're playing Nancy Drew and the more time they spend together, the darker Destiny's dreams become.
The Romani dreams of crimson, bloody rivers of destruction. She dreams about her cousin being consumed by his own beast. Destiny wakes from these dreams shaking with the horror of them, shaking and determined to save Peter from himself. They've always been close - set apart from the rest of the clan by their strange abilities - and she doesn't want to see her dreams brought into life.
So Destiny agrees to help her cousin with his foolishness. At least this way, she can watch Peter's back for him and while her powers have a price, she pays it willingly.
Over the course of their search, she spends more time with Roman Godfrey than she ever wished to do and the Upir is not what she expected. Roman is strangely fragile, arrogant and insecure at the same time. He seems completely baffled by Peter's easy friendship, although he doesn't turn away.
Indeed, Destiny sees hunger, longing, and possessiveness beneath the Upir's icy mask and she knows her cousin well enough to know he feels the same.
Roman and Peter are dancing on the thin edge between love and obsession and Destiny doesn't know how to keep her cousin safe. The Romani can only weep as night after night her cousin's wolf is ripped to pieces and she can see that future occurring far too easily. Love or not, Roman would want to own Peter and he's never been the type to flourish in a cage.
So Destiny is relieved when Peter suddenly starts dating Letha. The girl may still be a Godfrey but at least she's not Upir and maybe once he gets his dick wet, her cousin will finally realize that Letha's world is not for him.
Except that Peter just keeps falling. He allows the Godfreys to dig themselves deeper into his life, starts talking about raising Letha's child as his own. Maybe it's the gadjo in him that wants to put down roots or maybe her cousin's just a fool. Only a fool would give up his face to make himself a Vargulf and then fail to kill his target anyway.
Her cousin has always been soft as well as wild; that's part of the reason Destiny has done her best to keep him safe. But even the Romani's powers cannot stop his heart from breaking when childbirth takes Letha. She grieves for Peter as he shatters and yet, this pain is what he needed to break free.
When her cousin runs from Hemlock Grove, Destiny's dreams stop bleeding and she breathes a deep sigh of relief. She monitors the Godfreys like she would any serpent in the garden but she does it from a distance. The Romani does not want to know the Upir more intimately. She does not need another monster in her life.
But then Lynda is arrested and Peter returns to this cursed city. She tries to tell her cousin that they have other options but he's too desperate to listen and somehow still drawn to Roman like a moth to candle-flame.
There's hurt between them now. Yet that's not enough to stop the two men's strange attraction and her dreams of death start up again.
Something twisted is growing in this town. Something is pulling Peter toward the Upir, toward destruction, and her cousin has no sense of self-preservation. He allows another woman, some blond tramp called Miranda, to get her hooks in him. Miranda cuckolds both of them, leading Peter and Roman around by their dicks, and Destiny thinks her cousin knows the truth even though he won't admit it. A werewolf should be able to scent the Upir on her skin.
As her dreams turn more despairing, she starts to believe that Roman's interest is part of the attraction. Because the threads of fate are tangled around her cousin and the Upir, a dark cult sniffing at their past for weaknesses. The Romani tries to warn Miranda off when her dreams scream of corruption but the foolish girl won't leave. She thinks that she's the heroine in some sweet fairy tale instead of a horror story; she doesn't know there's monsters in the dark.
Destiny knows. She can see her cousin's human skin grow thinner day by day and she worries desperately. She bleeds and pays and chokes on death to keep him safe but she cannot keep him from Roman Godfrey. Peter would hate her if she tried.
Fate comes to a head when the cultists come for Roman's daughter, a child of such power that Destiny can feel it on her skin. The men come with hate and weapons and her visions are no protection from the bullets in their guns.
But the Vargulf is. Peter changes off the moon to save both her and Nadia and the Romani weeps as the humanity fade out of his eyes. This moment is her nightmares made reality.
The Vargulf shreds the cultists firsts, paints the hallways with their blood. But when its enemies are dead, its hunger isn't sated, and those gold eyes turn to Destiny. She wraps herself around Nadia to shield her as best she can; power or not, the girl is still a child and the young should be protected. But that does not stop the Romani's trembling when the creature that was Peter begins to stalk her way; she can see her death reflected in the Vargulf's eyes.
But then Roman appears there in the doorway. He pulls the monster back, dodging the razor teeth that twist to snap at him.
“I know you're in there, Peter,” the Upir says and Destiny doesn't have the strength to tell him that he's wrong. She can only watch in shock as Roman wraps his hands around the Vargulf's jaws. The creature shrieks in pain when he begins to pull, flesh tearing into bloody strips from his inhuman strength. But where there should have been hunger or stark triumph, Destiny sees love on Roman's face.
“Come back to me,” he whispers. “Come back for Nadia.”
It shouldn't work. Once become a Vargulf, a Romani can't go back.
But the Upir keeps on pleading. He keeps on begging Peter not to leave him, power bleeding into his words even as he shoves his arm down the creature's throat.
And somehow her cousin answers. When Roman reaches for him, Peter reaches back.
Roman pulls her cousin from the Vargulf like some tortured butterfly until he's lying limp and naked in the Upir's arms. The man strokes Peter's hair, ignoring the blood and slime that coats his body from head to toe. The Upir murmurs something that makes the werewolf chuckle weakly and looking at them now, Destiny finally understands.
This thing between Roman and Peter is not a poison after all. She hasn't been dreaming about death, she's been dreaming of redemption. The Romani has been dreaming about love because what else in this world could tie two monsters to each other? What else could keep them human when they should be enemies?
Destiny can see the truth now; she can see what Peter needs and she will fight as hard for love as she has fought to set him free.
End