Shake Up

It was early morning and Iva was in her usual spot in front of the mirror. Without her make up, the round faced girl seemed even younger than usual. Wide eyes, pale cheeks, and a blemish here and there, the girl could easily pass as 13.

Pulling out a bushy brush, the Russian began to dot her face with the magical powder. She remained quiet for a moment, then sighed and ran a hand through her frizzy hair.

"Karma, we're messes, "

Karma rolled over in bed, opening one eye to gaze at the blond Slytherin and raise an eyebrow. She rain her hand through her short dark brown hair, getting it instantly in the style she liked - mussed up and untamable, almost indecently so - and yawning. "Maybe you're a mess, but I'm all good over here." She rolled onto her stomach, gazing over at the other girl with a raised eyebrow. Still in her pajamas, the dark skinned teen looked... well, pretty good, for someone who hadn't done anything yet. She never bothered with make up anyway, so why bother with it now?

Brown eyes traced over Iva's looks, figuring that she liked her friend better this way, without all the smoke and mirrors that artificial coverers put on her. Was it such a crime to look younger? Surely not. Besides, all that stuff made her hypersensitive skin feel all... itchy.

Her scar was barely a thought by now, she knew it was there, they knew it was there, it just was. It didn't change anything. Sure, it had marred the right half of her face, and it still was a shock to anyone who hadn't seen her in a while, but they got over it. The three irregular lines from jaw to hairline were simply thus. Barely a thought, barely an anything.

She'd almost gotten completely over it.

Iva looked at her brush, then back to her friend. More specificly, the large, obnoxious scar across the girl's face. The ugly thing, the large flaw Karma somehow seemed to pull off. It really wasn't fair for someone to be so unaffected by something like that. The little girl had to deal with frizzing, her off centered nose, those odd shaped eyes, while Karma Black only had to roll out of bed.

Spitefully, Iva tossed the make up brush over her head to the vampire. She reached for her eye liner casually, saying, "You can use that. It will match yur skin tone. Wouldn't want you looking ugly,"

Karma caught the brush more out of instinct than actually wanting to touch the thing. She could smell the make up on it from across the room, and the small amount that fell off almost causing her to sneeze. She stared at the brush before raising an eyebrow and snorting. "What the hell do I need this for?" She asked, holding it between two fingers as if it were something disgusting... like a full baby diaper.

"I don't remember a time when I looked ugly." Karma commented, rolling onto her stomach to examine the brush further. She frowned at it, then rose the brush to the left side of her face, feeling the application of make up over her cheek and blinking at the sensation. It was odd to feel like she was putting on another skin, something powdery and odd, and it even smelled weird.

Her scar remained untouched.

Iva glanced at the mirror, half of her face painted and angular. The two sides of Iva, innocence and the adult. For a moment, Iva's eyes were drawn to her upper arm, where two slender bruises had formed, like two fingers clenching her arm. She placed the eyeliner down and spun in her chair to face Karma, unamused.

"Karma, grow up," she spat, "Cover up the scar. You have a reputation to hold up."

Karma cocked her head to the side, gazing over at Iva with a raised eyebrow. "My reputation?" There was a clear warning in her voice, though she half hid it in a laugh as she wiped the makeup onto the back of her hand from the bad side of her face. "What about my reputation? Nothing has happened to it. No one's challenged it. It hasn't gone anywhere." She shrugged a shoulder.

"I'm not ashamed of the way I look. I don't have to hide it." She smiled sweetly. "I don't need to smear things all over my face to feel pretty. I know I am. Boys know I am. Arsen knows I am. Dame knows I am. So these things are pointless."

Iva looked at the mirror, blinking and pouting her lips a few times before clicking the bag closed and carefully placing back in a small drawer. The Russian stood up at brushed off her skinny jeans before turning towards her companion.Her eyes raked up and down Karma's body disapprovingly as Iva pulled on her robes, buttoning up the top carefully. The girl then shashayed acrossed the room towards the bathroom; she needed to wash her hands befor touching her face again.

"Well, I just thought, since you're looks are no longer keeping you popular and all that weight you've gained ruined your body," Iva wiggled her frail hips softly, teasingly, "You'd want to look better,"

She pushed open the door, pausing for a brief moment. "And, you know you can't trust other people. They lie. They about how pretty you are, don't you know? People lie- then they leave you."

"Well, at least I don't look like a half-forgotten porcelain doll." Yawning, the girl tossed the makeup brush away from her, rolling back onto her stomach. "I don't need other people to tell me I look pretty. I know I do. I don't need make up and I don't need concealer. Besides, I'm popular enough without everyone dragging themselves after me. It was starting to get annoying anyway." Reaching under the bed, the girl pulled out a heavy tome, setting it on the bed and flipping it open to the marked page. She seemed to zone the other girl out, before she glanced up at her.

"Are you calling Dame a liar?" She asked curiously. "That's odd, you know. I trust Dame just as much as I do Arsen. You'd think you would too." Idly, she flipped a page, her gaze searching the text for something that didn't seem to be there. "Hmm... Then how do I know you aren't lying? You said it yourself, can't trust other people. What's stopping you from lying to me? Perhaps you're just jealous. I mean, I don't really have to do anything to be pretty and you... well..." She gave the girl's vanity a pointed glance, then looked at the other girl's hair. "You seem to think it's necessary to completely change the way you look. Wouldn't that be lying too?"

"It's funny," Iva turned around nonchalantly, a yawn on her lips, "You're lecturing me about lying when you're the fakest person I know,

"You always act so supierior to us humans, don't you? So special. When, in reality, no one even wants you, really. Too vampire for humans, too human for vampires. I mean, if you were completely human, I could take you. And a full vampire could kill you instantly. You're basically useless. So, you have to make it up in some way. That's why you pretend you have no flaws," she rolled a shoulder, bored.

"Does being perfect bring your Mom back to life? Does it make Arsen stop loving Aria instead of you? Of course not. We all know he only started dating you because Aria was already shacking up with Rhys. Let's be real here, he's probably only with you because you put out." Iva leaned against the wall, "Which is odd, since you've been used up since you were 10. You'd get on your knees for anyone."

Iva yawned, flipped her curls over her shoulder and grinned, "Listen, I may be fake, but I'm honest. No one likes you, Karma. It's just less of a hassle to be friends with you than enemies."

"Hmm?" Karma flipped the page of her book, eyes staying on the words even as something sick and twisted rose within her, something that darkened her eyes and dilated her pupils. Something inhuman.

Something not quite Kama.

"That sounded pretty rehearsed, Iva. Do you practice it in the mirror? I mean, you spend so much time in front of it, might as well talk to yourself too." There was a shift in weight, and suddenly the young half vampire was no longer sitting on the bed, having deigned to reappear beside the blond slytherin. Pianist's fingers wrapped around the Russian's slender throat, and Dela found herself marveling at how delicate the girl's life seemed, right there between her fingers. Her pulse was deliciously just there, just beneath the skin, and she had the power to just lean forward and taste it, or ensure that it would never be heard from again. It would be quite easy, really, to make it seem like an accident, to make it look like they ran away. She knew the head Popov quite well from her training, and trips with her own father, and she could help him in the investigation. She was sure he would let her help. In fact, by the time the girl realized that she was holding the shorter of them up off her feet, she had planned sixteen different ways to get away with the disappearance of Iva Popov and the other girl had turned an unattractive shade of blue.

Loosening her fingers was almost an afterthought, but she did it anyway. "You are very fortunate to belong to one of my best friends, you know." She mused lightly, easily holding the younger Slytherin against the wall. She paused to examine the nails on the hand not around the other girl's throat, humming some tune or another. "You don't seem to think making sense is something important enough to you, so I have to make sure you're listening. Do I have your attention, Inno?" Her hold tightened almost to the point of breaking bones before it loosened once more.

"Hmm... where to start. Oh. For one thing, you can't be fake and honest at the same time. Someone honest would know that. It doesn't make any sense you know?" She was talking, but was only allowing the other girl enough oxygen to breathe, not enough to actually form a word. "As for the friends and enemies thing, we were never really friends, were we? I was attracted to your name, not you yourself. And before you try some bullshit comeback about doing the same to me, I've managed to worm my way deep within the workings of that thing you're supposed to be inheriting but is really for Angel to have anyway. Your father likes me better, too. That's why he hasn't been home lately, by the way. He's helping King Carde train me. Must have figured you were a lost cause after all. Papa's little princess was never meant to rule, after all. Just a doll to play with and put on the shelf nice and safe. Me though? He'd adopt me if King Carde hadn't gotten there first."

Giving a sad little head shake, Karma sighed. "I'm sorry you killed your mother to exist. It's not fair to anyone that your mother, the real one, not the one that Papa hired to raise you, had to die for a child that wasn't even healthy. Or respectable. Just a tiny little blimp on the map. And barely that. Does wearing heels actually make you feel taller? Because you know, so does a booster seat. Maybe you should try those instead.

"That isn't an excuse to bring my mother into it, however. At least I got to know mine. Even if it was only until I was five." Shrugging a shoulder, she smiled softly. "Now, the Arsen thing. Honestly, Iva. One would think you would get over that. They were made for each other. I'm over it. Besides-" She gave a hungry smile, fingers tightening at the thought. "It just means I get to keep both all to myself. I'm not exactly big on sharing, you see. Dreadfully troublesome, sharing. I don't like other people touching my things. It's almost like germaphobia. By the way, I haven't washed this hand since I touched your make up brush. Sucks, eh?" She loosened her fingers again, to give the girl more oxygen, though there was still no chance of her getting free.

"As for the age thing... where did you even get that? Ten years old? That was before Hogwarts. You're way off." Yawning tiredly, Karma looked over her shoulder at her bed, really wishing she could just curl up and go back to sleep. "As for the other thing. You would still be hopeless against the human me. I have been human before, you know. I was stronger than you even then. People love me because of my differences from them. The humans love my human side and worship the vampire. The vampires respect the vampire and want the human for themselves. I don't belong yet, but both sides want me, not neither at all."

The world was fading around her mind. The mixed scents of the room, the dry feel of the wallpaper against her palms and fingers against her ridged throat, the horrible droning of Karma all seemed so far away, masking by the pops and clicks of saliva pulling bubbles of breath away from her body. Unable to swallow, Iva found her body twitching, muscles panicking in absense of oxygen. Despite her body automatically reacting her drained face remained strong and fierce. The perfect representation of the Russian spirit. Her eyes, the windows into the soul, those were the things that changed. Unlike the vampire, her icy blues were perfectly human, filled with comtempt and hatred.

So human, it was unnatural.

As air returned to her brian, to her muscles, Iva managed to spit up the collected drool in her mouth, leaving spittle across Karma's face. "I'm sorry," she grunted, trying to escape the girl's touch "Did you say something about my father? I wasn't quite listening,

"Papa thinks Tre will have the power." she whispered, voice raw, "Just like he thought the twins would have the power. Funny how they disappeared. Can't find them at all," Iva let out a dark chuckle, her smirk growing into a wicked grin, "No one ever checks the bottom of the ocean,

"It was so easy to make them disappear," she purred, the secret leaving her lips easily, "They never even saw it coming. Barely had time to cry or beg."

She looked away, studying the window carefully. "That's what will happen to Papa. To Tre. To Nolan. To you," Iva looks back at her, eyes cold, "If I was able to make my brother disappear without a trace, imagine what I could do to you, the girl with no family.

"A vervain bullet would look nice in your forehead." she purred, "Or maybe posioned handcuffs, so I could traffick you. The spunky ones always go for more,"

Karma grinned, wiping the spittle off her face and looking generally unconcerned with it, even as she let the blond girl go from about three inches above the floor. She reached into the waistband of her pajama bottoms, pulling the small magical device from it easily, as if the other girl didn't even exist. Bringing the small rectangle to her lips, she spoke, smiling even more as the feedback spiked. "Did you get all of that?" She asked, her voice serious, though the smile was uncontrolled, untamable.

"Well done, Stien." Came the slow, sure voice of Pieter Popov I. Karma beamed, a small bit of pride blooming in her chest. This was the first of - the easiest - of many missions for Papa. Information. Everything was always about the information. "Your training will continue with a harder target than Innokentiya next time, be aware." Karma blinked, and then nodded.

"Yes, Papa." The device sputtered out something, and then sparked and smoked, obviously unusable. With a smile, Karma dropped the small thing to the ground and returned to her bed, lying across it with ease. Now, she realized, she was a bit hungry.

Iva let her get cocky. She let Karma feel the excitement of victory, of glory. She let the girl bask in the fake love her own father supplied. Her raised eyebrows almost seemed surprised by the vampire's childish actions at first, before realizing that she should probably act at least a bit betrayed. (Iva had always expected a betrayal, really.)

"P-papa!" She whispered, voice shaking. "How-?" Her eyes glanced over the vampire. Eyes wide, lips quivering, the girl seemed completely innocent as she bolted from the room.

Making sure she was a fair distance from the bedrooms, from any listening ears, Iva allowed herself to stop in the halls and laugh. It was a clear, crystaline laugh, echoing through out the abandoned dungeon. A laugh so hearty it forced her to hunch over to grasp her stomach as sound bounced off mildew and brick.

How easy it was to fool a man! With Karma making the mistake of believing her newly enhanced hearing wouldn't pick up the live feed buzzing endlessly, it didn't take long for her to realize Papa's intent. The little russian only needed to lose her temper, act wisely, and suddenly the plan was falling perfectly into place.

A spark of excitement rippled down her spine as she parted her lips and reached down, deep into her mouth. By the way her knees were shaking, she would have guessed she was Karma, the child! Poking at the damp, fleshy inners behind her last tooth, Iva's sensitive skin twitched in pain. Pain. More of that was to come. Her slim fingers pressed down hard, feeling the gum and bone squirm about underneath her touch. A small bump, about a tenth of the size of her teeth, resided within her gum. Taking a centering breath and clamping the box between her nails, Iva closed her icy blue eyes and prompty ripped out the chunk.

The blast of pain was a lot less than what she had expected, despite the fact her mouth was filling with blood. The Slytherin looked at the black box she had removed and comtemplated why Papa hadn't gotten transmitters this small. They were so easy to hide, so easy to turn on when she needed to contact him.

"Hey," she whispered into the now buzzing box, smile flickering, "They fell for it,"

Of course they fell for it. Innocent Iva always gave up information. They'd never consider th fact she'd be covering for someone else. Without waiting for a response, Iva dropped the device and stomped on it, smashing the evidence of betrayal.

Iva always expected betrayal.