History

After college, I negotiated a pretty solid package with several companies, but eventually took a position with Vanqor under the promise I'd get to work with a new technology platform they were developing. In the course of that work, I met Richard Silverstein. As we began to know each other more, we started a relationship, despite all the other women he was seen with, whom he assured me was just a natural byproduct of his role with Vanqor. He told me I was brilliant and beautiful. That of all the women in the world, I was the one he couldn't get out of his head. Know what I did? I believed him.

Looking back, I'm sure he was employing some kind of magic or supernatural power on my mind. I know I was impaired because there's too many things that I can't remember or only have vague, fuzzy snapshots of. Like being sodomized by his friends during their weekly poker games when Richard made his bet with me. Being crouched on the kitchen floor with shattered glass and the contents of a shattered jar spread around me. Countless fragments of insults and yelling for crimes I don't recall. Yet, I stayed with him, convinced I had no other choice.

Eight months later I was summoned to HR for embezzling money from several projects. That's when I realized I wasn't Richard's princess, I was his patsy. There wasn't enough proof to press criminal charges, but enough to terminate my employment. The benefits agreement I reached with Vanqor vanished along with my income. I thought I had a pretty healthy savings, enough to live on while I looked for another job, but found my personal accounts had been depleted too. Dick.

In my job search, I struggled despite my qualifications. Little did I realize that my reputation was so damaged that no respectable company would touch me. Free lancing had the same issue, and while I could find opportunities in the underground, I spent most of my time battling other hackers for the chance and trying to thwart their sabotage of my work. I picked up a job as a bartender just to cover the basics, but you try making a living wage in tips when your customer base is just as impoverished as you are.

One night, Richard told me to dress up for a night out. He took me to a private event with some colleagues of his, most of whom I didn't recognize. We were at some old mansion and there were very few women in the mix. He warned me to be on my best behavior and make him look good, which I assumed meant that the people we would socialize with were important to his goals. Richard made a point of introducing me around, but it wasn't with pride or fondness. It felt like a sales rep trying to entice customers to their product. At one point, with a vice grip on my arm, he dragged me around a corner, pushed me against the wall, pinning me there. His voice growled low in my ear. "This is your last chance, Elena. Become my familiar. Name me as your master, or else."

I'd gone along with so many things up to that point. Maybe his power was dampened, maybe he demanded something my soul couldn't give. I don't know, but whatever the reason, I shook my head in mute denial. Twenty minutes later, I was escorted into a private room where several men examined me like one would a thoroughbred horse and engaged in negotiations for a price. I was in a daze. Terrified of being sold. You can't sell people, right?! But, also a little hopeful that I would be. That there would be some escape from his abuse, from his clutches and sadism. Yet, more terrifying was the idea that I would have to return home with him and face his wrath, having failed to fetch a suitable price.

Enter Mr. Montgomery. An older gentleman with a quiet way about him. He spoke quietly with Richard and then envelopes changed hands. One with cash, the other with all my papers - passport, birth certificate, degree and transcript copies, taxes and such. Mr. Montgomery led me out, took me home, provided me with food, a hot bath, and bed. As I dozed off, I heard him and a guest conversing in the den over drinks. The next morning, Mr. Montgomery ushered me from his house, driving me across town to a penthouse in downtown Atlanta.

There, I and my envelope were handed over again, this time to Mr. Xanatos, who had used Mr. Montgomery as a proxy to purchase me from Richard. That's strange to say, isn't it? That I was bought and sold...maybe even stranger that I decided to stay. Mr. Xanatos and I had a long discussion wherein he offered me employment, room, and board in exchange for simple companionship. No sex. Just sharing meals, engaging in conversations, attending some social functions, watching movies together, and merely providing human company.

Mr. Xanatos is an exacting man, one who is accustomed to people responding the way he wishes. Much of how he is in business carries into his personal life. He rarely asks. He sets the expectation and lets people achieve it by their own designs, or addresses the failure if needed. He is a man to whom routine and ritual is necessary. We have a daily schedule that rarely varies. At first, I thought I would just stay long enough to save enough money to fend for myself, but the more time I spent with him, the more I was drawn to him.

Our first Christmas together led to an engagement, our marriage following within a year. During work hours, I serve him as his executive assistant at Xanatos Industries. After, I am his wife, his companion, and his familiar. That piece of my soul that Richard demanded does not rebel from Mr. Xanatos, but seeks to bring him peace and comfort. I am nothing really. Just a simple woman who cannot see herself as he does. Many women would envy my position, and many tried to fill it before I came along. I do not know why they failed and I succeeded, but I do know that the magic he wraps around me is not manipulative, malicious, or even active magic at all. Rather, it is protective, possessive, and loving.

Avatars

Skinwalker Talents

• Body Enhancement (Stamina)- The Skinwalker's body undergoes an evolution, and the Skinwalker can choose to focus on speed, endurance, or strength. After making that choice, the Skinwalker enjoys supernatural strength, or supernatural speed and reflexes, or supernatural endurance and stamina in his human form.
• Spider Sense - Drawing on subtle changes in the environment, electro-magnetic fields, and the brain's ability to interpret these stimuli, rapidly process their meaning and anticipate the next likely outcome, the Skinwalker with this power has limited precognition. They can 'see' three seconds in the future, enough time to evade an immediate threat or begin a countering action.
• Rhino's Hide - The Skinwalker increases its own resilience, growing skin that is resistant to blunt force or sharp-force trauma.
• Venom Immunity - The Skinwalker is immune to all venoms and poisons manufactured by mother nature in her flora and fauna.
• Boneless - The Skinwalker can squeeze his body, human form or otherwise, through any opening big enough to admit a mouse to pass. Watching a Skinwalker use this talent is a little disturbing.
• Animal Shape - The Skinwalker expands the repertoire of animal forms it can assume.
  • Choose 2 more animals - you gain the ability to shift into these new forms.
• Adoption - The Skinwalker is capable of being adopted into a lycanthrope group/pack structure as a member.
• Empathic Awareness- Animals are often very attuned to the emotional context around them. Skinwalkers with this ability have an intuitive understanding of the emotional charges around them and can affect it. They can either generate a sense of calm that helps to alleviate stress/pressure, or can add to it by increasing fear, nervousness, and the like.
• Fennec's Fancy - Inspires affection in others, making the Skinwalker appear super cuddly, drawing on the 'omg how adorable' factor to make others less inclined to attack or harm the Skinwalker.
• Nature's Blessing - The Skinwalker can touch a person and supercharge that person's immune system and clotting factor. This tends to cure most mild illnesses (the flu, cold, etc.), as well as providing the touched target with a temporary boost to their innate healing factor.
• Sense Supernatural - The Skinwalker can sense when something supernatural is nearby out to a range of 60 feet.
• Cry of the Gull - The Skinwalker releases a powerful vocal cry that causes intense pain and cripples the target for as long as the wail lasts. For a few minutes after it ends, the target will experience ringing in their ears, temporary deafness, vertigo, and disorientation.
• Eel's Kiss - The Skinwalker can generate an electrical charge equivalent to a law enforcement grade tazer and use that charge against a target the Skinwalker is close to (within 2 feet) or touching.
• Poison Arrow Skin - The Skinwalker's skin can secret a thin layer of potent toxin which is absorbed through the skin by people the Skinwalker touches. This toxin is a neurotoxin which gradually induces paralysis and can even bring about death with repeated touches. This power can be activated at will. The potency of this secretion increases the more agitated or nervous the Skinwalker is.