#caine.

Why do you believe Caine is dead and in hell?

That is not his curse from god.

God cursed him to burn in the sun, bear a mark, eat his children and any who harm him would have equal harm done to them.

And maybe turned him into a vampire if you believe those myths.

4,277 people and ✨️ me ✨️

Naturally, Iris had been thrilled to be stuck in a building with her cousin while they ride out the storm, no doubt seeing it as a fun new place for them both to explore — but the novelty of the community center doesn’t last very long for either of them. The second a loud clap of thunder echoes throughout the center and Maddie goes running to her dad, Iris of course finds Reina immediately, looking up at her with those big brown eyes she can never saying no to and asking if they can please go find Caine. Reina hesitates — not only because it’s awkward after their last encounter, but because Otto’s not far and she’s not sure how he’d react if he saw her talking to the man she’d left for him. Iris, as usual, won’t be taking no for an answer though and before Reina can even respond, she spots the man she’s looking for and takes off to where Caine has set up shop for the night. He’s sitting looking at his phone when the little girl launches herself into his arms and wastes no time snuggling up on his lap, and by the time Reina catches up, she’s made herself more than comfortable. “I’m sorry, the storm scared her and she wanted you. I didn’t have time to stop her.” Not that she could have even if she wanted to, but that’s neither here nor there. She spares a glance over at Otto to see if he’s pissed yet, but the man is deep in conversation with one of his dealers and Reina doubts he’ll be paying attention to her anytime soon, anyway. “I’d rather not leave her here...” she starts, which is ironic considering a few weeks ago she’d had no qualms leaving Iris in the hospital alone for a few hours before she finally decided to show up. But she’s trying to be better and as much as Iris likes to think she’s fully recovered from the fire, she’s a long ways away from getting the all clear and Reina’s got her oxygen and everything else she might need in her big tote ready to be used. She could always just leave it with Caine but she’d rather not — and let’s be honest, she doesn’t hate the excuse she now has to be around him. Pointing to a chair beside him, she raises an eyebrow. “May I?”

Reina’s been expecting Caine to find her somehow, sooner or later, so when he barges into her office at Calliope not longer after her stint with the blonde whore he’d fucked, it’s not all that shocking. Hearing he had made an attempt at moving on had sent Reina off the rails in a rage she hasn’t felt since the early days of Jason’s infidelity, when it’d been more about the betrayal she felt and less about the fact that she got a sick thrill from doing whatever the fuck she wanted to whomever the fuck she wanted. Plus, there’s an obvious reason for her acting out aside from the jealousy — she wants a reaction. She wants to see if she still has the power to rile Caine up and piss him off, to see if she still has any kind of effect on him — because unfortunately for Reina, he still has an effect on her, and she refuses to be the only one in that boat. She’d seen a glimpse of it at the hospital, but that’d been more about Iris than anything else and she wouldn’t expect any less from him given how close the two of them have gotten. Now it’s different, he sought her out because of her actions and even if it’s out of anger, at least he’s there. 

If he was going to approach her anywhere, she’s not surprised it’s at Calliope considering Caine would never step foot anywhere near her new home, but she’s still a little shocked he had the balls to show up at all even if she’d been looking forward to it. Then again, if nothing else, Caine’s always been ballsy — especially when it comes to her. “Would you look what the devil dragged in,” she greets as she turns toward him with a wide grin, though she doesn’t bother to get up just yet. “Heard your new friend almost went for a swim. You might wanna warn her about this town’s lack of guard rails, she could’ve really been hurt.”