The Arwain chronicles Book II

Chapter Nine

The Arwain Chronicles: Ghost From The Past...

Chloe hadn't realized how much she missed skate boarding until she got back on top of one. She had left to find other necromancers or at the very least get the word out that the necromancer on the council was legit. That it wasn’t some council scheme to kill more necromancers. She was now doing a mix of both shadow motion and skating, or as she liked to call it, shadow skating. She was fully solid no part of her in ethereal form yet with the wheels beneath her feet, the magic that enabled her motion in ethereal form pushed her forward.

She couldn't help but smile. Even with the fact that she was currently giving chase to the necromancer her watch had led her to, she felt a sense of freedom she never knew was missing. Even though she would never give up being with Dan for anything, she wasn't meant to be in just one place. She was a free spirit. One that loved to roam and go whichever way fate chose that day. Even if fate was a magical watch on her wrist. She kicked the ground more out of habit than necessity for it as she used her magic to push her on faster, her target was not a slow one.

He worked at Starbucks right at the edge of town and that was where she had found him. She had stepped into Starbucks following the direction of the watch. It had been pointing directly at him as he stood behind the counter. He looked bored half to death as he took orders from the customers in line. Choosing the way of least resistance, she too had joined the line.

It was a bit slow moving, but she hadn't minded it as she was hit by a realization. How the heck was she going to broach the subject? She couldn't exactly walk to him and go like 'hey can you raise zombies and stuff? She had been in his exact position, trying to blend in with the rest of humanity. She hadn't been very trusting back then and she highly doubted he was any different. At best he would deny it and call her crazy, at worst he could very possibly attack her right there in the open. When she'd gotten to the front of the line, she hadn't yet managed to think of any good way of crossing the subject. But as it so turned out, she needn't have bothered so much.

Soon as his eyes landed on her, they immediately drawn to the tattoos on her arms. She smiled letting him study them for a while. "They look nice don't they?" She asked smiling.

At first he looked a bit alarmed that he'd been caught staring. But then became more surprised that someone saw him as more than an instrument to get them whatever drink they preferred in the morning or whatever time of day they encountered him behind the counter. She could immediately feel that he was a loner, just like her. "Sorry," he'd offered politely. "Welcome to Starbucks, what will you be having?" He posed his tone making it sound like this was the hundredth time he was asking the question.

"Do you like them?" She went on to ask ignoring his question as she stretched out her hands to put the more hidden ones on display.

He'd glanced down at her arms then back up at her. "They are nice, now can I take your order?" he'd said not giving her much ground to go on.

"I've been told that they are the markings of royalty," she’d then said. This actually sounded absurd enough that it actually caught his attention. Meanwhile the one behind her in line was not so subtly clearing her throat with impatience. Chloe ignored her.

A brow arched on his face. "Oh really?" He drawled the sarcasm in his voice not in any way hidden. "And where exactly would you be princess of?" He posed his tone already betraying that he was expecting some ludicrous answer from her.

"Not where, but what and not princess but queen," Chloe had corrected him.

The boy before her rolled his eyes seemingly losing all interest. "What can I get you?" He posed now more curtly.

"But you haven't asked what I'm queen of yet?" Chloe returned matter of factly without batting an eye.

The lady behind her finally lost all patience. "Excuse me are you going to order anything?" She posed.

Normally, Chloe wouldn't have needed to say the out loud but fid it for his benefit. She muttered the spell only loud enough for him to hear. It put the lady behind her and everyone else in line in a temporary trance that would last about a minute or two. "Ask," she had repeated, this time in a more hard and authoritative tone.

The boy's guard had ratcheted a hundred levels up when she cast the spell. One less observant than she was however, would have missed it given how good an actor he apparently was. "And what would you happen to be queen of?" He posed this time however his tone was a lot more serious. It was now starkly apparent that she wasn't just some goth girl looking for attention.

Chloe was not sure how, but she could feel the magic he was gathering. He was readying himself to attack her. Chloe smiled, if she was going to ask him to follow her, she would at the very least have to prove herself worthy. "Death," she'd answered simply.

Less than two seconds after her pronunciation, the  boy raised his hands letting off his offensive spell before turning and bolting into the back. Her smile had actually widened at the spell. It was a very mild form of the corruption spell. It would have left whoever it was meant for feeling like a glacier had been run through them weakening and slowing them down immensely. It wouldn't  however, hurt them physically or leave any traces. The magical signature left by the spell was too weak to be tracked by anyone not physically there. Even one outside the very same building would have barely felt it.

The boy was many things, but dumb was not one of them. He was not only smart enough not to outrightly kill in front of all the people in the Starbucks, but was also smart enough to keep himself from being tracked by any council agents. Given the fact that the spell of corruption was her go to spell when in danger, seeing as it could only be blocked by other necromancers who were few and far between, she had already anticipated his move. Also given the fact that she didn't exercise even nearly even half as much restraint as he did, the shield she had wordlessly raised around her was strong enough to repel ten such spells cast at the same time. The spell barely even registered.

Already using her magic to boost her, she had vaulted over the counter top and started giving chase. By the time she had gotten to the back of the Starbucks he was already out the rear entry. Cloaking herself, she had shifted to her ethereal form and crossed to the door less than two seconds later passing the door before it had even fully swung closed from his exit.

She'd solidified once again in the alley just outside the door turning in the direction he was running in. “Wait, I just wanna talk to you," she had shouted after him. She might as well have remained silent for all the good that did because he kept on running. Clearly, he either didn't know about or wasn't powerful enough to move using shadow motion. She had shot off running after him, her mind already conjuring a skate board.

He must have also been using magic to fuel his escape. They were now ten blocks away from where they had started and he still showed no signs of slowing down let alone stopping. Given the many turns he was making, Chloe could tell that he knew the whole area like the back of his hand. If she didn't close the gap soon, she would lose him. Once again she needlessly kicked the ground this time putting in a lot magical energy into her forward motion. The gap started to close. But before it had done so too much, he dove into another alley. Chloe came to a halt as she turned into the alley to find him gone. He had only been about five meters ahead of her, there was no way he'd crossed the whole alley in the time it had taken her to come to and turn into the alley.

Raising her right arm, Chloe looked down at the watch willing for it to find it to find him. Her eyes widened a bit when the watch did the unexpected. Instead of turning around to point in a given direction, the compass arm that guided her rose off the surface of the watch moving through the glass as if it were liquid and pointed upwards towards the right. Chloe looked up to the rooftop of the building to her right. Sure enough the boy was up there breathing hard and looking exhausted as he looked down at her, suspicion was written all over his face. So he could use shadow motion, she unconsciously noted.

"Look," Chloe shouted to him from where she stood choosing not to go up. She didn’t want him to start running again. Even though using shadow motion she was sure she could very easily catch up to him. She wanted to earn his trust first if she could. "I don't wanna hurt you, I just wanna talk," she said.

"Like hell you do," he shouted back to her before disappearing from the edge probably in another sprint.

Chloe sighed exasperatedly, seems they weren't going to do this the easy way. Without warning, she burst into pitch dark clouds quickly ascending the height of the building. She reached the top just as the boy jumped over the edge to the next one. The gap was too wide, there was no way he was going to make it. Just as she was about to speed forward to catch him, he too burst into a cloud his however being a dark shade of grey but not completely black. He crossed the distance between the two buildings landing in a roll on the next building as he solidified once again. Chloe sped forward past him and solidified at the edge of the building he was on just as he was about to reach it. He came to a skidding stop less than a foot shy of running into her. Her head was tilted to the side with an expression that quite rhetorically asked, 'Are you done?'

Chloe sighed looking to the name tag on the boy's green Starbucks apron. "Look Kurt," she said at the boy who was already backtracking. "We can do this all day. You cannot outrun me and cannot hide from me," she said in a tone of definite finality.

His backtracking slowed down to a halt as he too seemingly saw the truth of her words. Though he was trying to force it back into control, he was breathing hard as if he had just run a hundred miles. "Who are you and what the hell do you want with me?" He posed not bothering to hide the suspicion in his tone.

"My name is Chloe, and I just wanna talk that's all," she said raising her arms in a surrender gesture trying to get him to see that she meant him no harm.

"Then talk, how did you know that I'm a necromancer?" He posed.

"One, this," she said raising her right hand and pointing to the watch. "And two, his," she said lowering her finger just a little to point to her skin. "Only other necromancers can see my tattoos," she informed him.

"And so what do you want with me?" He asked.

"I want to help you Kurt, and I also need your help," she answered.

"Look, I don't know what game you're playing, but I don't want or need your help or anyone else's for that matter," he said turning to leave.

"Oh really?" She posed in a way that made him pause mid turn. "Let me guess, you live alone, no family, no friend’s heck barely any acquaintances. When your powers started showing up and people realized you were different, they started avoiding you, ostracizing you. Some even hating you for it. You spend your days trying to blend in, to be like everyone else when you know perfectly well that you aren't. You can't have a relationship with anyone. You're too afraid that when they find out you can see and talk to dead people they won’t accept you. They wouldn't understand that you asked for none of this"

"You walk with the burden of your powers alone with no one to bear it with you. Every minute of every day you can feel it taking more and more of a toll on you. And you know, either sooner or later you will snap. At some point it'll become too much to bear and your mind will collapse under the weight of it," Chloe was not sure where the whole speech had come from. She had never let herself overanalyze her situation back before Dan, seeing no point in wallowing in self pity. Now that the words were spoken however, part of her knew that it was how she had felt back when she was alone. From the look in Kurt's eyes, she knew it rang true to him too.

"I can help you," she said. "Join me and you will never have to be or face any of it alone ever again," she said at last.

Kurt was silent for a while her words seemingly running through his mind as gears seemed to turn behind his warm brown eyes that still regarded her with suspicion. "And what do you get out of this?" He queried.

"There is a war coming, I need an army," she answered simply. Just like Dan, she wasn't going to lie to anyone about what lied ahead. Dan had given everyone that stood by him the option to either stand with him or try to save their own lives the best way they knew how. She would too, whichever way it happened to be. Dan wouldn't want anyone forced into or deceived to fight for them in the war that lied ahead, and neither did she.

"Wait, what?" It was clear that of the many things he'd expected to hear, a war and joining an army was nowhere on the list. "You wanna help me by having me fight in a war?" He posed incredulously.

"Believe it or not, yes," Chloe answered she too acutely aware of how absurd she sounded. "Whether you believe me or not, there's a war coming,. It can either find you standing by my side and that of some of the most powerful beings on the planet or it can find you back at Starbucks serving coffee and pretending to be like anyone else, it's your choice," she went on to offer.

Kurt was silent for a long while his gaze fixed critically on her. It was clear he was trying to decide whether to believe her or not. "And why should I follow you?" He at last posed. "If I'm getting what you're saying right, you wanna be leader and have me following your every order, am I right?" He posed.

Chloe nodded once.

"Then tell me why should I follow you," he questioned.

"I think it's pretty clear between the two of us who is the more powerful one," she replied in a tone that clearly relayed that she thought the answer to be self-suggesting.

"Over half of the magical community is more powerful than I am, I've met other necromancers more powerful than I am. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not following any of them. You're going to have to do better than that if you hope to have me follow you, let alone fight a war for you," he said in a tone that made it clear that her being powerful alone was not enough to convince him.

"I am your best chance of survival," she stated in a firm tone of voice.

"And I'm supposed to take your word on that?" He posed arching an eyebrow at her.

"Give me your hand," she instructed holding out her hand to him. The suspicion etched onto his expression doubled as he regarded her hand, unsure of what to make of it. Chloe wasn't either. It was one of those rare moments when her tattoos took over and made her do something without her conscious control. She herself wasn't aware what they hoped to achieve by having him hold her hand. They however seemed to have an idea of how to convince him to follow her. She hadn't been doing such a good job of it herself so she wasn't about to argue with them over it.

"Why?" He posed.

"Just trust me on this," she implored. "Please," she calmly urged at his hesitation. After long tense seconds, he finally relented reaching out to take hold of her hand.

Soon as their hands made contact, a gasp escaped them. Their eyes widened as their hands unconsciously clenched around one another's in a tight grip. Both of them found themselves in an open space shrouded in a thick fog looking up at what must have been the largest oak tree in existence. The thing was gigantic. It was almost seven meters across standing at almost a hundred meters tall with thousands upon thousands of branches. They were all of different shapes and sizes but not even a single one of them had a leaf on it. It stood eerily still with its leafless branches looking almost lifeless.

Chloe was not sure how, but she wasn't just seeing the tree, she was feeling it too. She.... she was the tree.

Both their eyes were drawn to one of the lower branches as they both saw and felt it at the same time. At the tip of the branch, a single leaf started sprouting on it. It seemed to be on fast forward as in the span of seconds it shot off from its bud growing into a fully mature leaf. As the leaf grew, Chloe felt a bond form between her and Kurt, it was almost as if a trace of her consciousness was left in his and a trace of his consciousness left in hers.

A sound of surprise and slight discomfort left Chloe as she felt it flow into her. The toll that necromancy had taken on Kurt was flowing into her, she was just sharing in the burden of it, she was literally taking it from him. It was only now as she looked up at the leaf that she noticed that it had been unhealthy looking. Some parts of it were a sick shade of grey, while some parts had turned completely black. But the longer it remained attached to the oak tree, the more and more of its natural green colour it regained, till at last it was fully healthy once again. Chloe finally released his hand.

Both let out an involuntary surprised gasp as their hands parted. Even though they were no longer in contact, Chloe could still feel the bond to Kurt. He somehow now looked much better stronger and all round healthier than before he'd taken hold of her hand. While the bit of necromancy that he'd been practicing had been taking quite a toll on him judging by the look of the leaf, it barely registered to her. What Chloe however was more concerned about was how many more leaves would occupy all the remaining branches of the oak, all draining the burden of necromancy into her. Was she actually that strong?

Her eyes turned to Kurt who was confusedly almost disbelievingly looking down at the hand that he had held hers with. She too looked down at it. Chloe had seen it before they held hands. The long intricately complex tattoos of an oak tree with only one leaf at the same exact position they had seen the one in the vision grow, had not been there before. Kurt looked up at her with a mixture of both shock and awe. Of all the things Chloe had expected him to do or say in that moment, she hadn't in any way expected him to drop down on one knee face down and call out. "My Queen…”

*******

Dan stood regarding the man, before him for a while unsure of what to do or say. If this was as Ember believed him to be, her dead brother, then he was in way over his head. He had read about him in more detail in the books Ember had written back when she was still Eldrid. It had taken the concerted of all the phoenixes, both young and old to bring him down. and even then a large portion of them died in the effort. On his own, his chances were dismal if he was being generous with himself, nonexistent if he was being realistic.

"I thought you said he was dead," was the first thing that left his lips his eyes studying the one before him. He too was scrutinizing each and every last one of them with a gaze that clearly relayed that they didn't pose even the slightest challenge to him.

"H... He is supposed to be; You're supposed to be dead!" Dan wasn't used to feeling this kind of fear from Ember or any other kind of fear for that matter. The fact that her voice was literally shaking with pure, raw fear only served to drive into the ground any hope that maybe things weren't as bad as they seemed to be.

"You would know wouldn't you El'?" The Dark phoenix before them posed. Dan did not miss the accusatory tone in his voice. "Tell me El', how did it feel to pull out my heart?" He posed causing Dan to cast a glance at her. She hadn't told him that it was her that had killed her own brother. "To stand over my dying body with my still beating heart in your hand, no remorse in your eyes for what you had done as you watched me die?" He posed his tone becoming infinitely more venomous and acidic with each word.

"You were crazy. A deranged psychopath that sought to destroy everything you lay your hands upon," the phoenix beside him accused. "Killing you brought me no joy Eldraen, but I will do it again if I have to," in spite of the fear Dan could feel from her, Ember's tone clearly showed that she meant every single word.

"Such a shame," Ember's brother, Eldraen, spoke in a voice that wasn't even remotely remorseful. "That you drew no pleasure from killing me, Because I plan to enjoy every second of the century I will take in killing you" he shot at her in a venomous tone of voice.

"What do you want with my family?" Dan questioned forcing all the fear out from his voice.

"Nothing" He shot back at him simply. "Your family holds zero interest to me" he added.

"Then let them go," Dan spoke in a hard tone of voice.

"I will," he answered unexpectedly. "If you give me what I want," he added.

"What do I have that could possibly interest you?" Dan queried.

"When my dear sister here killed me, I was sent to another realm," he informed them. "All I ask is that you merge our two realms and free me," he put forward simply.

Dan needed no telling to know that Eldraen wasn't telling him everything, of by a long shot. He didn't trust Eldraen, not even in the least. "And if I were to decline, you would kill my family," Dan said already seeing the threat that was coming.

The smile that crossed face of the One Eldraen had possessed somehow inspired more unease than joy in Dan. "No, I won't," he answered smiling. "I will spend quality time with your family," the smile started to fade and the malice in his eyes compound in on itself. "Torturing them and making them curse the very fact that you exist. I will torture them to within an inch of their lives, then heal them and start all over again and again and again," he spoke in a tone that couldn't be any more malevolent if he actually tried to make it so. "I will first break their bodies, then their minds then their souls," he spoke his jaws clenching as a maniacal look quickly saturated his gaze. "It will be an unending torture that will last for tens of millennia without end..."

Dan was barely aware of how hard his jaws were clenched. He was clueless to the fact that his eyes were now a fiery shade of red. The fact that his whole body was ablaze was completely lost on him. A shout of cold fury tore through him as he took a step forward directing both his hands at the man before him. Two jet streams of phoenix fire shot forth at the man. He made no move to defend himself or even evade the attack. He barely even moved a muscle as the flames engulfed him entirely. It was a whole minute before Dan relented on his attack. When the flames ceased, not even a single stand of hair on the man's head had been singed. It had all been an effort for naught. There were two bursts of red light and a scream tore through the air that Dan all to readily recognized.

To his horror he looked down at his mother who was writhing on the tarmac covered in phoenix fire. In his blind rage and desire to hurt Ember's brother, he had forgotten all about the blood bond. "MOM, NO!!" Jim was now futilely shouting out at their mother as he found himself unable to get close enough to her to be of any kind of help. "What have you done?" His brother turned and shouted to Dan

Dan was momentarily frozen, unable to do, say or think a single thing. His own mother was ablaze right before his very own eyes and it was his own doing. He took a step forward ready to move to his mother's side and heal her, but Ember raised her hand stopping him before he could. "It's the bond. No matter how much power you put into healing her, it won't do her any good so long as she is bound to him," Ember said her gaze never leaving her brother as hate of a kind Dan had never thought possible to possess slowly infected her gaze.

"B, bu... But he is healed," he finally managed get out. "Why isn't she healing?" He posed.

"Because, he won't allow it. He’s keeping his healing power from flowing through the bond between them" Ember answered him. Pain, Rage and Hatred of the purest form all fighting for dominance in her voice.

"Stop it, heal her! Please," Dan found himself asking his voice clearly relaying the pain he was in as he watched his mother's suffering.

A sadistic smile crossed his expression as he finally relented. The flames that had engulfed his mother immediately died out and her skin which had been burnt beyond recognition, started regaining a normal healthy outlook. It was about thirty seconds after she'd been fully healed that her mother managed to slowly push herself off the ground, Jim was immediately at her side helping her up. She stood a bit hunched over leaning heavily on Jim, seemingly too tired to muster the strength to stand upright on her own. While Jim looked at him with eyes saturated with pure and unadulterated hatred. Dan couldn't quite place the emotion he saw in his mother's eyes. It was almost as if she was confused, disappointed and worried all at the same time as she regarded both him together with those by his side and those behind him.

"Ar..." His mother paused and cleared her throat trying to make her already hoarse voice more audible. "Are these them?" She managed to pose a bit weakly her eyes on the ones beside him. Dan was confused at the question not sure what she was talking about. Who was "them"? His confusion must have been apparent as his mother once again cleared her throat to clarify. " The girls you were telling me about?" She said.

Dan could not stop it as his eyes glistened with tears his eyes on his mother. Even after how he had failed them, after all they had gone through because of him, she did not hate him. There was no accusation in her gaze, only motherly love and care. His jaws clenched. "Not all of them," he answered as he glanced to Karra then back to his mother. "And a few more," he added.

"I'm sorry I didn't believe you," she whispered hoarsely.

Dan's head was shaking even before he knew it. "No mom," he said taking everything within him not to let his voice break. "I failed you, I'm sorry," he offered the tears that had been pooling in his eyes finally spilling over and travelling down his face in two twin streams.

A weak smile crossed her face. "I already did" she returned.

"I will save you, I promise" Dan said in a firm tone of voice.

"How touching?" Eldraen spoke up drawing Dan's haze to him. His smile had widened as he observed his pain. "Now make good on your promise. Save both your mother and your brother. Merge our two worlds and end the torture you've put them through," he ordered.

Dan's jaws clenched. He knew that Eldraen wasn't bluffing, if Dan didn't comply with his demands, he would put his family through hell. But on the other hand, he couldn't shake the gut feeling that Eldraen wasn't telling him everything. He highly doubted that he occupied a whole realm by himself. Who knew what merging that realm to the one they were in might bring along with him. Much as every part and fiber of him hated him for even considering it, Dan forced the words to come out. "I need to think about it," he said finding himself unable to look at either Jim or his mother as he did.

"You motherfucking cunt," Jim shouted running forward at him he barely made the third step before he ran into an invisible barrier that kept him from moving any closer to Dan. It glowed a sinister red at his touch. "You coward, you got us into this clean up your mess," he shouted. What hurt Dan more that the rage or the hatred in Jim's tone, was the fear Dan could so clearly hear in it. Dan's jaws clenched. Behind all the rage and insults, his brother was crying out for help. Yet he was going to leave him at the mercy of his tormenter. What hurt even more than Jim’s cries was the resigned look that had crossed his mother's expression who'd fallen to her knees when Jim let go off her. He was once again failing them.

"Seems I overestimated how much your family means to you," Eldraen said. Malice saturated his voice as he eyed Dan with unhidden pleasure. Dan knew perfectly well that he was only saying it to further torture both him and his family. Hatred of a kind Dan had never felt before quickly permeated through his every fiber as he looked on at Ember's brother.

Dan's brows furrowed along with that of those around him furrowed when a drop of deep dark red blood started to trickle from the nose of the man Eldraen had possessed down to his upper lip. His hand rose to it dabbing his midfinger in it and inspecting it. Unhidden disgust crossed his face as he muttered the word, "Pathetic." More and more blood flowed from his nose dropping to the tarmac below. He looked back up at Dan seemingly unconcerned by the fact. "Seems I have overstayed my welcome in this body," he stated. "You have until tomorrow to come to a decision. Any later than that and the offer changes from giving them back to you to me ending their torture myself," he growled the look in his eyes leaving no illusions as to what he meant to do.

When they vanished, everyone including Ember herself, seemed relived, Dan did not share in the feeling...

*******

"You can't do it Dan," were the first words that left Ember soon as they were all back within the castle. Dan was silent, not immediately replying to her words as the image of the look in his mother's eyes still haunted him. He couldn't remember any point in his life when he had felt lower than he currently did. "Do you hear me Dan, you simply just can't let that monster back into the world," Ember urged.

"He has my family Ember," Dan spoke quietly no fight in his voice, barely any emotion either.

"I am aware of that Dan. But believe me, as much as it hurts me to say it, you lost your family the moment they landed in his hands," she said in a hard but not cold voice. "If you don't comply with his wishes they die. If you do comply with his wishes, they along with countless others die at his hands. His and whatever other beast that crawls out of whatever world he has been in for all these millennia," Ember stated.

"Except that they don't?" Dan's reply could have easily even to his own ears, been mistaken for a calm one. If it wasn't clear to see in his expression just how emotionally drained he was. "My family doesn't die if I don't comply with his wishes," He said at last turning his gaze to Ember. "He tortures them, your brother tortures them bit by bit till they are on the brink of death. Then he brings them right back to square one, and starts over. He’ll do this over and over again! Day after day, month after month, years after year, decade after decade, century after century, millennia after millennia!" Dan was barely aware of the fact that his voice had risen in volume or that both his fists and jaws were tightly clenched. He was equally clueless to the fact that he was now directing a narrowed crimson gaze at Ember. "Is that the fate you're asking me to leave my family to?" He hissed.

"That is the fate that I am asking you to spare the rest of the world of," the phoenix countered. "Can't you see Dan, whatever place my brother was sent to after his demise is most likely the same place the other three dark phoenixes before him were also sent to. Your chances against my brother alone are already slim as it is! You against four Dark phoenixes, your chances would be laughable if it didn't mean that humanity and every other even remotely benign thing on the planet would come to an end with your failure!" Ember shouted at him in rage.

"I died to save you," Dan spat. "I didn't give a fuck about the world or anyone in it, my family included because I wanted to, I had to save you and now when I want to save my family, my own flesh and blood, the world is too high a price to pay?" Dan questioned through gritted teeth.

"I never asked you to die for me!" Ember shouted back at him. "And much as you would like to believe that it was a gallant thing to do, it’s possibly the stupidest thing you have ever done your whole life," she shot at him her tone abrasive. "No one or two lives are worth the life everyone and every other thing on the planet! Not mine and certainly not you family's," ice had now flowed into the phoenix's tone of voice. "You have one destiny, only one duty to this world that matters, and that is to save it not to put it at the mercy of the one that will destroy it,"

"Hey! Back up!" Elly spoke up taking a step forward her eyes crimson and her claws drawn.

"This is not a conversation you want to intrude on little wolf," the tone of Ember's voice halted Elly in her tracks as it became clear that the phoenix wasn't averse to taking a more violent approach if it came to it.

"And there she is in all her glory," Dan spoke, his tone derisive. "Lady Eldrid! So long as she gets what she wants whoever is hurt or lost in the process be damned," he said in a glacial tone. "You have not changed one bit," he spat.

The two of them stood glaring at each other for long silent seconds. "Why wait then?" Ember finally posed her tone once again calm but lacking any emotion. "If you plan to destroy everything that is good on the planet, then why wait till tomorrow. What difference does it make if the world ends one day later or earlier? Why not just save your family while we stood out there?" She posed.

Dan was silent not because he didn't have the answer but because he did. His mind had made the connection about the other dark phoenixes long before Ember had said anything. He’d also thought about whatever else that might emerge from that other world if he were to merge it with this one. Doing what Eldraen wanted wouldn't be saving his family, it would only be delaying it possibly for an even worse end. But then was he ready to leave his family to suffer at the hands of the maniac that was Ember's brother and the other dark phoenixes? The very thought itself filled him with a rage of a kind that all of his self-control and discipline to keep in check. No matter what he did, it seemed that the last prediction was intent on coming true.

"Eldrid may have been a monster in every sense of the word," Ember spoke softly but no less firmly. "But she understood that sometimes the unpalatable had to be done for the greater good," Ember finally said choosing not to press him for an answer to the question. Turning around she vanished in a burst of flames.

His gaze turned to the others who now all stood looking at him. His mouth opened to say something, anything... nothing came out. "I only have this one question," Two spoke up drawing all attention to her.

"Ask," Dan offered.

"What do you plan to tell them?" Humans I mean. The ones that don't have any magic and no clue as to its existence?" She posed. Dan was momentarily at a loss as to what she was getting at. "You are going to fight an epic battle that will determine the fate of mankind. Do you honestly believe that there is a way you can fight this war without the whole world being aware of it?" She posed. Dan's mouth opened and closed a couple of times as he realized he didn't have an answer to give her. "You haven't even thought about this have you" Two astutely observed.

Dan's jaws clenched as it once again became clear just how much in way over his head he was. After long quiet seconds of him having nothing to say in response, he simply vanished in a burst of flames too....

*******

"We are so dead," it was Two that finally broke the silence that was left by Dan's disappearance. Her tone still holding the same indifference it had towards the subject.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Elly shot at her clearly annoyed as she walked off most likely going after Dan.

"Any time," Two muttered neutrally as she and the assassins walked off.

"I am not jealous of the situation he is in right now," Victor said frankly, watching as his sister walked off.

"Yeah but he can't possibly destroy the whole world for two people," Carol spoke her eyes on Victor.

"Would you pick the world over me?" Victor posed causing Carol's eyes to widen with a measure of shock at the question.

"That's different, you are my mate," she replied a little more defensively than she liked.

"You are looking at the situation objectively because you have no ties whatsoever to what is at stake here. Whether he is now a phoenix or not, Dan was once human and to them family ties are among the strongest that they have. Asking him to live with the knowledge that every second of everyday, his family is being tortured is like asking you being asked to let me die." From the way Carol's jaws unconsciously clenched, Victor knew she now had perspective of what position Dan was in.

"We aren't gonna make it out of this are we?" Carol finally posed with a sigh.

Victor sighed too his lips pursing. "Ninety-five percent chance we die before all this is over," he said moving for the stairs to head up to his room.

*******

Athena neither cared for who she was nor who or what her brother was capable of, Ember had no right to speak to Dan as she had. She stepped out of the castle immediately taking on her demon form. With one flap of her wings, she took to the air moving for the tree at the far end of the compound....

*******

Ember stood on a roof near the top of the castle. She hated the guilt that was slowly gnawing at her, eating away at her bit by bit from the inside. She had been hard and harsh to the one person who meant everything to her. But it was necessary. None of them had ever seen what she had seen. None of them knew what a dark phoenix was like. If they even had the faintest of ideas what a single dark phoenix was capable of, it wouldn't occur to them as even the remotest of possibilities to comply with what Eldraen was asking for. She had done the right thing, eventually they would all come to see that.

Ember had been so lost in her thoughts that she didn't see the trunk of a tree till it was too late. It smashed her against the wall of a taller tower. It broke several bones in the process, the haphazardly broken off branches on it running her through. Her eyes quickly found the demon as she landed a few meters away. Athena must have used a silencing spell to keep Ember from hearing it as she broke the tree which Ember recognized as being the one at the far end of the compound. The branches broken off on one end, the end that had hit her, made it look crudely like a spiked club. The look in the demon's eyes told Ember that things had finally come to a head. A dark part of her welcomed it.

Disappearing in a burst of flames and leaving the spiked end of the tree stuck to the wall, Ember a few paces away from Athena, her wounds were already closing up and her bones healing. She ignored the pain of the process. "So what is your excuse this time?" The demon spat at her. "You always seem to have a logical reason for all that you do, so justify to me why you just said what you just did to Dan," the demon growled.

"I owe you no explanations Athena," Ember returned in a hard glacial tone. "All I have so far said and done is for the greater good," she added.

"All you've so far said and done in testament to your cowardice," the demon shot back unfazed. "You may have succeeded in feeding that bullshit to the rest of them. You may even believe it yourself, but I see right through you. You couldn't give two fucks about this world or anyone in it. You do not want Dan letting your brother back into this world because you're afraid, afraid of him and what he has planned for you," she declared.

"You know nothing of me," Ember shouted taking a brawling stance as the last of the healing quickly came to a finish. "Now I strongly suggest you back off before I disobey Dan's orders," she warned her hands bursting aflame.

Athena's hands burst aflame as well, her tail curling threateningly like a scorpion's. "Bring it on bitch!" Athena returned unfazed.

A chilling smile crossed Ember's expression. "Exactly what I hoped to hear..."

*******

Elly pushed open the door to the study and walked inside. Dan was standing at the window that looked out over the castle compound staring blankly out at it. Elly could see it in his very posture. He was rigid, and tense unconsciously forcing himself to be strong. Even when it was clear to her that the weight of all that he was faced with was pushing down heavily on him. It was a posture that she had seen with her own father when the pack went through particularly hard periods.

Even though she was perfectly aware that there was very little she could do about it, she was beyond furious with Ember. How was it that one that was supposed to be as smart and as wise as she was fail to see the position that Dan had been put in. Had she the power she would have knocked the living daylights out of the bitch.

She leaned back against the wall just beside the door, she too folding her hands across her chest. She had seen how her mother dealt with their father in those rough times. So she knew that sometimes it meant just as much to be a present support and source of strength than to actually offer solutions and try to fix the problem for them. With males doing the latter sometimes translated to them thinking that you didn't trust them or think them capable of dealing with whatever it was. She sent as much love support as she possibly could through their bind to him.

His head turned to her as she felt it. A weak smile crossed his face. "Thank you," he muttered before he let his gaze turn back to the window.

"You have my support Dan," she found herself saying. "Whatever you choose, I will be with you all the way"  she added. If you choose to let your family suffer for the sake of the rest of the world, then I will be with you through the hardest parts of it along with every other part of it. If you decide to save them and let the world burn, then I will stand right beside you and we'll watch it burn together," she said meaning every word. Elly chose not to sugar coat her words because she knew while everyone else saw it as saving the world, Dan saw it as leaving his family to suffer indescribable agony at the hands of Ember's brother. One just as powerful as he was. Neither of the choices he'd been offered were palatable but whichever one he picked she would be with him to see it all the way to the end.

"Do I have the right to?" Dan posed his head not turning from the window. "I mean, I want to save my mother and brother, but at what expense? Out there, there are countless other mothers, brothers sisters and fathers. Do they all deserve to die so I can have my family back?" By the tone of his voice it was clear that the question was directed more at himself at her. "What right do I have to place the value of two lives over everyone else's simply because they are my family?" Dan further asked.

"What right do they have to ask you to give up your family?" Elly questioned in return.

"Except that they haven't," Dan replied quietly. "They asked for none of this. In fact, barely any more than a handful of people outside of those within these walls, know what is coming. The fate of over seven billion blissfully ignorant souls has been placed on a scale against the lives of two who mean everything to me and I have been asked to decide where the scale should fall," he said.

Elly crossed the room and circled her hands around him from behind resting her chin on his shoulder. She redoubled all the love and strength she could possibly offer him through their bond. "Like I said Dan," she said quietly in a calm level tone. "We'll watch the world burn together of you so choose," she said in a quiet comforting voice.

Dan placed a hand over hers. "Thank you," he offered genuinely. "That means a lot to m..." Dan paused as a flaming form zipped past the window followed by a winged one. Both their eyes were fixed on them as two of the strongest in Dan's following who'd just fallen to the ground, brawled each other. Both of them looked livid and intent on causing the other as much harm as they could. "Aren't you going to stop them?" Elly queried when after a while Dan was still silently standing in her arms regarding Ember and Athena.

"No," he answered calmly. "This moment has been brewing between the two of them since Athena's attempt at my life back in the hall of her trial, they need to work it out on their own," he further replied.

"Won't they hurt each other?" Elly asked a bit concerned.

"They will," Dan answered. "But they won't kill each other. Athena is not powerful enough to kill Ember and I ordered Ember not to kill Athena," he said calmly almost detachedly. "Besides if I were...." Concern and fear immediately filled Elly as a pained groan left Dan, his hand leaving hers as it shot up to his head.

"What's wrong Dan? What just happened?" Elly posed her concern and fear evident in her voice. Her fear was caused by what she could only describe as impossible. For a second, at the same exact moment as when Dan had winced in pain, it had felt as if there mate bond wasn't there! Not that it had been broken or distorted in any way but that it had.... just simply not been there. For an instant, their mate bond had disappeared and Dan had ceased being her mate!

"It's nothing," Dan replied his face still contorted in a wince.

"It's not nothing Dan," Elly said emphatically. "I felt our..."

"What's wrong Dan?" Elly's words were cut short as Ember appeared in a burst of flames her brawl with the succubus seemingly forgotten.

At the sound her voice Dan's eyes opened, his face hardening into an emotionless mask. Without a word, Dan stepped out of her arms and walked out of the room. Ember silently watched him go a measure of both pain and acceptance in her eyes. Ember's head turned to Elly soon as Dan was out of the room, the look in her eyes telling her that the phoenix had felt the same thing she had, happen to her own bond with.

Before she could say anything however, the window beside her was smashed. A tree trunk flew through it narrowly missing Elly and slamming Ember right through the walls behind her all the way out the other side of the castle...

*******

Twenty one's hand rose within a split second grabbing hold of the handle of the blade with its tip less than as inch away from her chest. Twenty-two was seated on the floor of her room legs crossed and her eyes closed. She was in a meditation pose except for the hand that she'd used to throw the blade at Twenty-one with, which was still extended out. Twenty-one leaned on the side of the doorway looking on at her fellow assassin. She understood the unspoken communication that she wasn't welcome within the room. "At some point, deep within yourself, you know that I did it for you," she at last spoke.

"I never asked you to" Twenty-two replied not opening her eyes as her extended hand moved back to meet the other at the center of her chest.

"Just like I never asked you to save me when my mind was scrambled," Twenty-one returned calmly.

"My saving you did not include stabbing you in the back," Twenty-two countered.

"Look we can pass the blame and justify our actions all day long," Twenty-one said. "That is not why I'm here. You are the only one even remotely close to a friend that I've ever had. I just didn't want the world to end, if it does, without us talking to each other," she offered.

"Well, objective achieved," Twenty-two replied her tone clearly dismissive.

Twenty-one eyed the other assassin for a long while. A sigh escaped her finally as she pushed herself off the side of the door and walked away.

It was only after she was gone that Twenty-two opened her eyes. She stared unseeingly at the air before her for a long while....

*******

Victor looked up mid press up when the door to his room opened and Carol walked in. He regarded her the white apron she had on and the tray in her hands with an arched eyebrow. "Disappointed it's not a towel?" Carol posed with a smile

"I'm not saying that I would exactly hate it if it were," Victor returned with a smile as he stood up from the floor. Apart from the slight sheen of sweat that he was covered in, a pair of boxers was all he had on. Carol didn't bother to try and hide it as her eyes devoured every inch of him. "Disappointed it's not a towel?" Victor asked smiling.

"Not at all," Carol replied, unconsciously biting down on her lower lip as her gaze dropped to below his waist.

"We're walking a dangerous line," Victor said even as his own eyes once against roamed over the exquisite feminine form that was Carol.

"That's half the thrill, isn't it?" Carol replied slyly.

"Until someone crosses the line," he answered. Carol's gaze rose to Victor's smiling expression. She'd gotten the message he was subtly passing to her. They both needed to keep their wolves from getting worked up if they hoped to keep this encounter pleasant. "What's the occasion?" Victor asked eyeing the tray.

"Well, the world might very well be ending in a less than a day. I'll be damned if I let it do so without sharing at least one meal with my mate," she said with a smile as he moved over to his bed placing the tray on his bedside drawer.

"Well, give me five minutes to freshen up a bit, I'll join you," Victor said turning towards the bathroom.

"No," Carol said causing Victor to pause mid stride. "Believe me," she added taking a deep breath of air causing Victor to realize his scent covered almost everything within the room. "I don't mind." The side of his lips tipped upwards in a smile as he settled down on the other side of the bed. "My mother gave up trying to teach me how to cook over a century ago. So in the interest of not poisoning you with whatever monstrosity I was sure to come up with if I had tried, I decided to keep things simple and make sandwiches," Carol said a bit self consciously pulling back the cloche from the tray to reveal platter heaped neatly with sandwiches. They had been cut in half diagonally with their crust cut off. "Think of this as a picnic if you would," she added a bit of nervousness in her voice.

Victor found himself unable to help the smile that crossed his face at the bit of colour that rose in her cheeks. "Don't worry, I don't mind at all," Victor put her at ease. "Besides, I can't make much myself apart from what you already have on that platter so I'm not in any position to judge," he said with a slight laugh. "All the cooking genes in the family believe it or not, went to Elly," he added picking a sandwich from the tray.

Carol calmed down when it was clear that he wasn't in any way disappointed by what she had presented. "Well, if we all make it out if all this, I'll have to get her to teach me a few things. I can't have my mate live on a diet of sandwiches for the rest of our lives," she said with a smile at him. They were silent for a while just enjoying each others company as they ate the sandwiches Carol had made. "Do you ever think about it?" Carol finally posed.

Even without her saying it, Victor knew what she was asking about. "What it would feel like if the thing keeping us apart just simply vanished and we found ourselves madly in love with each other?" He more of said than asked. Carol nodded the look in her eyes telling Victor that she was thinking it too. "Only every second of every day," Victor replied truthfully.

"Well if it means anything, I can't think of anyone else better to have as a mate than you Vic," Carol said putting considerable effort into not blushing as she did.

"Not even Greg?" Victor posed with a teasing smile.

Carol giggled. "He was good eye candy and his strength was bonus points, but not even I was blind to how obnoxious, egocentric and immature he was," she rebuffed.

"Really? That one ride in my car back to the compound could have fooled me," Victor said with a laugh drawing back to evade a playful kick from Carol as she mock glared at him.

"How about you?" Carol posed. "You had a lot of flings with other pack females, anyone you liked in particular?"

Victor arched an eyebrow at her still smiling. "You really sure you wanna know the answer to that?" He asked.

Carol thought about it for a second. "You know what, forget I even asked," she finally answered. Both their heads suddenly turned towards the window as the sound of commotion outside caught their attention. Ember and Athena were currently engaged in a mid air battle. They silently watched the battle for a while before Carol spoke. "Quite the united team we have," she said with a bit of sarcasm. "Do you regret it?" She asked. "Choosing to fight?" She clarified when Victor turned to her with a questioning expression.

"Unless something very drastic happens, this fight will spread to every corner of the planet and be one where every being on the planet will have to be engaged in. In the real sense there is no choosing or not choosing to be part of it," Victor answered quietly.

"I guess you're right," Carol conceded. "I just wish we had more time," she added.

Victor smiled at her. "Me too...."

*******

She stood by the window of her room confused on how she should feel. It had been now two thousand years since she last saw her and in all that time she had not stopped hating her with every fiber of her being. And yet, to see her as she had been, broken and subjugated, it made her feel... feel sorry for her. If she got the chance she would rip out her heart without a second thought to it. Just as she had so badly wanted to for the past two millennia. Except now, it wouldn't be the revenge that she had been playing over and over in her mind. To kill her as she was right now would be a mercy to her. A mercy that in spite of all what she had done to her, she found herself wanting accord.

"Who is Vera?" She heard the question.

Ailin sighed, she had known that this moment would come. That eventually, Dan would ask about Viera. Her knowing however had done nothing to quell her dread of this moment. She dreaded it not because she was afraid of judgement. It would mean crawling down the dark pit that was her past and this time bringing another with her. Letting them see the darkness that had forged the woman that stood where she was.

"Viera," Ailin corrected quietly her gaze remaining fixed unseeingly on the window. "And she," continued letting out a sigh as she turned to face him. "Is my sire, the one who made me a vampire," she finished.

Dan who was leaning on the door frame with his arms crossed, arched an eyebrow at her. "And you hate her for it?" He questioned.

"How could I? I was the one that asked her to do it," she answered him eliciting more surprise from him.

"Your tone of voice and demeanour out there clearly indicated that you have something against your sire," Dan spoke. "What is it?" He posed.

"To understand why I wish to rip out my sire's heart, you would have to know my whole story," Ailin answered the uncertainty in her voice not lost on Dan. "And it's not a short tale," she added.

When Dan said raised no objections, she started. "I lost my parents at a very young age," she began. “My younger sister was barely two months old at the time...... Our uncle was a tyrannical pig of a man...... I worked so hard to ensure my sister never had to go through what I did everyday.... At about the time I turned fourteen.... It was an unending nightmare. But for my sister I was willing to endure it...... I never thought I would make it to twenty years of age let alone six thousand......,”

“Then one evening while coming from cleaning the brothels, I saw her.... I can't tell you how disappointed I felt when I lost her, I looked around for her, running through the streets like an idiot but it was she that finally found me.... As I stood at the door looking at my uncle, I already knew that I wouldn't be able to sleep that night from the pain.... She must have thrown him across the room but I couldn't really tell from where I was curled up on the floor.... One hundred and twelve times I send the blade into him repeatedly, I gutted him with no remorse or the slightest of mercy.... When she bit into me, I at first felt ecstasy, but towards the end it turned to indescribable agony.... When she finally zipped off, I was left weak and disoriented in a house that was silent except for the rhythmic beat of my younger sister's heart," at this point Ailin stopped. Her eyes told Dan that she was miles away in another time six thousand years ago.

Dan had clearly heard the pain in her voice as she related the story, but saw none of it in her eyes. It was almost as if her mind had somehow disconnected itself from the pain of it all, at least on a conscious level. She regarded her past the same way a doctor regarded a suffering patient, while on some level they would feel for them, they exercised a clinical coldness that allowed to be in a way detached from it. "That's why you hate her," Dan finally spoke up. "You killed your sister and you blame her for it," he deduced.

Dan's question seemed to take her out of her reverie, Her expression turned contemplative for a while before she finally answered. "Yes and No," she said. "In spite of the pain she'd left me in, Viera was my saviour so I took her words to heart," Ailin explained. "I walked into the room my younger sister and I shared. I knelt down beside bed my sister was under and with my ear to the floor, smiled at my frightened little sister. 'It's okay Elysia, no one will hurt you ever again. No one will hurt us ever again,' I'd forced myself to whisper even with my hoarse voice. 'You can come out now,' I'd told her.

"'What about uncle?' She'd asked me. Even though I'd just killed him in cold blood, the fear in my sister's voice as she asked about him made my blood boil. It made me wish I could do it all over again.

"'He's gone, for good. He will never come back. Never ever hurt us ever again," I said to her softly. Partly because I wanted to comfort her, partly because that was all my increasingly sore and parched throat would allow. Eventually, I managed to get her to come out,. For another night, I sat beside her bed watching her sleep. This time however, it wasn’t because of any kind of pain that I was in. It was because as I looked down at her while she dozed off, it hit me that we were finally free. That I was now the only one in any way responsible for taking care of my sister. Somehow, even with the fact that this was how it had always been, that thought made me make a silent promise to myself that my sister would never lack for a thing for as long as I lived,"

Ailin paused reminiscently for a second before she carried on. "The next three days were the longest ever in my life. The hunger for blood grew within me with each passing minute. My senses were heightened beyond anything I'd ever thought possible. I could hear a conversation from the other side of town as if I were standing right there. I could pick up scents from afar off and even ones that no one else seemed tone capable of. I could see in the darkness as if I was standing under the noon day sun. I was so much faster than the fastest horse, Stronger than a ten bulls and with the instinct of a deadly hunter.”

“But all this for the first three days, was absolute torture for me. I had no control over any of it. A pin drop in the next room would make me feel like my head was about to explode from how loud it sounded to me. Everything looked harsh and bright to look upon. And the smells," Dan didn't miss how her nose wrinkled almost as if the memory was still fresh in her mind. "I couldn't grab or hold anything as I always seemed to break it from my strength. I also kept running into walls and people as I tried to move. My superhuman speed would activate without warning."

What got me through it was the thought of Viera. I held on to the memory of how strong she had been, how confident.... How powerful," Ailin related. "And so I enjoyed the sun, sitting outside in it for hours at a time part of me knowing that it would be who knows how long before I ever saw it again. You see, the popular belief about vampires and the sun is only half true. When you are made into a vampire, you can't step out into the sun, you have to build your resistance to it. A process that takes anywhere between two to three millennia. It all depends on how long you managed to remain in the sun initially before you became a vampire. If a newly made youngling vampire was to step out into the sun, they would almost instantly desiccate and die. I managed to stay the whole three days so it was after two thousand years that I finally managed to see the sun again," a contemplative look crossed the vampire's expression. "At around the same time I met him," she said offhandedly. It was almost as if she wasn't even aware she'd said it out loud. Her gaze lost in the air before her.

"Him who?" Dan queried.

"A man named Korzak," Ailin answered. The pain and rage in her voice once again was no where to be found in her eyes. At some unconscious level, she had disconnected herself from whatever it was that this Korzak had done. "But I'm getting ahead of myself," Ailin stated seemingly pushing back down into the recesses of her mind the memory of the man. "As the third day drew to a close, I paid a visit to a man I particularly hated," she said.

"Sir Rothwade," Dan said already putting two and two together.

A small but chilling smile crawled across the vampire's lips. "It was like the most powerful drug you could ever take. I drained every last drop of blood from his body. All he could do was scream and futilely struggle against me as I drained the very life out of him and I reveled in it. The power, the strength the absolute feeling of indestructibility. I never wanted it to end and so I became the darkest side of me I had ever been. It wasn't long before I owned the whole town I was in, I was the stuff of nightmares and everyone knew better than to mess with me."

"Because of my uncle, I hated men. I hated how they seemed to hold all the cards and how women were always dealt an unfair hand at life," a scoff escaped Ailin at the memory almost as if it was beyond her how she could have come to the conclusion. "What my young naive mind failed to notice was that, apart from my uncle next to no other man had ever been mean to me. I had painted every man on the planet with the same brush I did my uncle. And somehow, the women that had been possibly in some ways just as bad as my uncle, were the victims. In my head all that I had suffered was because of men.,” Viera went silent for a while before she spoke up once again. “One thing you come to see when you have lived long enough in this world, is that no one, man or woman, adult or child, has it better. We all suffer, in different ways yes, but we all suffer. This wasn't so apparent to me in my first years as a vampire, I killed men by the hundreds," Ailin admitted the contemplative look still on her face.

"I kept my promise to my sister," she finally said. "Soon after I became a vampire we became the richest in town had everything we ever wanted. We were feared and respected in equal measure and most of all, we were free. Free from the tyranny of my uncle. Free to do anything and live however we pleased.”

“ I didn't make my sister into a vampire. Even with all the power and strength I'd gotten, behind all the excuses I made to myself and reasons I gave for what I did, it wasn't lost on me what I'd become. I was a monster, a ruthless bloodthirsty monster that was no better and in a lot of ways, I was worse than the men I blamed for everything including my own actions. I didn't want my beautiful and innocent sister becoming the thing that I had."

"About five years after she made me into a vampire, Viera came back to our little town. She wanted to see if I was still there and more importantly, if I was still alive. I had killed all the men in it by then. Not the little boys though, I was gone but I wasn't that far gone, thankfully," Ailin said seeming genuinely thankful that she hadn't. “It was now a lesbian town that had a strict 'no men allowed' rule in it.  The boys that came of age in my time there, were immediately sent away from home to go find their way in the world if they could. Those that refused to leave died by my hand. All women in the town were under my mind control, a skill I had picked up pretty quickly. So no objections were ever raised concerning any of my actions. They all spoke and acted as I pleased when I pleased and how I pleased it. I was a vile sadistic cruel creature back then, and at some base level, I know I still am. I had no excuses back then, and in six thousand years I am yet to come up with one.”

“Viera, being the darkened soul that she is, didn't at all care about any of what I had done. In retrospect, she was the only one that could have talked any kind of sense to me and gotten me to change my ways. Hers was the only opinion that had mattered to me back then. But then her moral code and regard for human life was the identical twin of mine. She applauded and reveled in all what I had done and joined me in it. According to Viera, if I had managed to keep myself alive on my own for that long, then maybe I had a shot at surviving. For the next three years after her arrival she taught me all she knew about combat and survival. I was an astute student and quickly took up everything she had to offer.”

“My sister had in all this time, begged me on countless occasions to make her into a vampire. Something I had refused her each and every time. I knew what I had become and had no plans of ever letting my sister become the same as I. So you can imagine my horror one evening when I came back home after a hunt to find my sister bathed in blood with a smile on her face. The exact same look in her eyes as I saw in the mirror after carrying out a bloodbath. Viera, who knew of my objections to my sister becoming one of us, had made her a vampire regardless.”

“From the very first sight of her, I knew that she was just like me. The sweet kind girl I had raised with blood sweat and tears, was no more. In her place was a ravenous monster that had no regard for life whatsoever. I... I just simply couldn't allow it," even though her expression remained stoic and emotionless, tears glistened in her eyes. "I held my sister's heart in my hand as it made its last beats. Looking down at her stunned and confused expression as she looked up at me from the floor where she was dying," Ailin seemed unable to say anything for a while before she finally continued. "Ironic isn't it. After all what I had done, all what I had been through, all what I had endured, just to ensure my sister survived, to give her a better life… I was the one who ended it. Not my uncle, not any of the men that I had deemed evil and blamed for everything, but me, her own sister, her protector."

"In a sick twisted joke of fate, it was my sister's death that revealed to me the hypocrisy of all what I had been and was doing. It was her death that reminded me the value of human life. My sister was gone, not some random faceless person who I would have already forgotten by morning. It was my own sister, my very own flesh and blood. She was gone, my sweet little sister would never ever come back to me again. The weight off all what I had done landed on me with a harsh starkness and crushing clarity. Guilt, grief, self loathing and disgust of the highest possible magnitude almost overwhelmed in that moment. It was the closest I ever came to ending myself. But somehow, I turned it all into anger. Anger and hatred all directed at the one I had up to that moment considered my mentor. I blamed her for what I had done. I had to, otherwise the pain and guilt of it would have crushed me."

"As I looked up at her, she saw it. She knew how I felt and that I blamed her and all she did was smile. While my moral compass had been righted in that moment, hers was as skewed as it had always been. She felt no guilt, no remorse for what she had made me do. To her it was all just a game. While every cell in my body and every fiber in my being wanted to kill her in the most brutal most excruciatingly painful way possible, I was no idiot. I was still just a youngling barely a decade old and she was a little over a millennia old by then. With a thousand-year gap between us, I stood no chance against her. If I had tried to attack her, I would have ended up just like my sister, she knew this and I knew this. So I silently turned and walked out of the room. It would be another two millennia before she and I ever saw each other again," Ailin said then paused for a while. "But then what happened past that, is a story for another day?" She said her tone revealing that she didn't want to dig further into her past than she had already done.

"In short, let's just say that I hate her because she took my sister and the only man I ever loved away from me," she summarized. "Yes, Korzak," Ailin quietly answered the question that must have been somehow written on his expression.

Dan was quiet processing it all before he finally spoke. “When all this is over do you want me to let you kill her yourself or should I do it?" He posed.

Ailin looked up at him with slight surprise on her face a small smile gracing her lips. "I was actually thinking about that very same thing when you came in," she answered contemplatively. "Given what either Eldraen or the old man has done to her mind, I am no longer sure that killing her is a punishment anymore," she said.

Dan paused seeing the sense in her words. "Maybe you're rig..." The word 'right' did not fully leave his lips. A pained cry left him Dan through gritted teeth as he fell to his knees. A sharp pain had flared up in his head making it feel like someone was trying to split his head with a blunt axe.

"Dan, are you okay? What's wrong?" Ailin's concerned voice only just barely managed to reach him as the pain rapidly increased to immense proportions. An agonized scream left Dan, the pain leaving him barely aware of it as others started filling the room. It literally felt like his mind was being shredded apart, like someone was trying to destroy his mind and consciousness from within. The concerned voices of those around him were reduced to meaningless noise. The pain left his mind barely capable of two coherent thoughts let alone understanding speech. After a few more seconds each of which felt like eternity Dan mercifully sank into the inky blackness of unconsciousness....

*******

Claire stood silently regarding Ronald who was seated behind the desk in his office. His fingers were interlaced before him as he looked up at her. His gaze telling her he was running through everything she had just told him looking for the slightest inconsistency or discrepancy. Azira stood beside her father ready to execute any order given to her.

She made no secret of the blade she held in her firm grip. Most others wouldn't have seen it, but Claire clearly saw the predatory gleam in her eyes. A part of her was hoping she would be ordered to kill her. The darkness of her father was growing in her more and more each day.

"Are you sure of all what you have just reported?" Ronald finally spoke up in a calm but deadly tone of voice.

To most others, that question would have inspired fear. It would have caused them to review all what they had just reported to ensure that it was all fact. With Claire however, it aroused more annoyance than fear. "I'm not relaying to you hearsay, I saw all that I have just told you with my own eyes," she returned making no secret of her annoyance at the question.

"Are you leaving anything out?" He posed the question in another way.

Claire knew that it was in an effort to catch her in a lie but she had no reason to lie about the events that had taken place earlier in the day. "Really?" She not so politely snapped. "You actually think I have nothing better to do with my time than try to lie to you about the possible end of the world as we know it?" She ground out through gritted teeth.

"I would be careful how you talk to my father if I were you," Azira spoke in a calm almost detached tone. Claire however clearly heard the threat in it.

"Answer the question," Ronald ordered in the same tone he had used in asking the question the first time around.

A sigh of strained patience left Claire as she used almost all of her will to force herself to remain calm. "No, I have not left out anything, I am not lying about anything, I am not distorting anything and I am not hiding anything," she said in a tone that bore forced calm. "We need to act now!" She urged with waning patience.

"You seem to already have a plan in mind, just how exactly do you think we should act?" Ronald posed his tone once again calm. She knew that it would be short lived given what she had in mind.

"Unite forces with Dan and fight the common enemy," she said without hesitating.

The change in Ronald's demeanour was almost instantaneous. "Are you asking me, to have my hunters join up with the filth that use magic?" He growled his utter revulsion and ire at the very idea plain to be seen on his face.

"The very purpose of the existence of hunters is to protect humans from the danger and evil that magic can be," Claire shot at him unfazed by his fury. "We are about to face the biggest danger and the worst kind of evil this world has ever seen and probably will ever see in a million years to come! Joining up with the 'filth' that use magic, is the least of our worries at the moment," she spat curtly.

"Do not forget who you are talking to, I am the leader if the hunters and I decide how we face whatever challenge comes our way! We do not need Dan or..."

"Yes, because the hunters are certainly well capable of taking on four beings just as if not more powerful than Dan," Claire cut him short her voice overflowing with sarcasm. "Yeah, we are perfectly capable of fending off every creature that comes out of whatever shit hole the four dark phoenixes will be coming fro..." Claire stopped short her hand rising quicker than lightning. The blade Azira had just thrown at her stopped in mid air for only a split second before it shot through the air back towards her.  The blade stopped short of running through her the tip pressing at her throat.

Claire saw it as the unhinged side of Ronald rose to the surface. "You would dare use magic in my presen..."

He too stopped short as Claire's left hand rose its fingers curling in a partially closed fist. Ronald partially rose off the chair with a gasp as his heart immediately stopped. Claire was now channeling Dan through their bond. With his power backing her spells, The shields and protective spells they placed on themselves practically useless. "I am neither asking nor begging you to do anything," she spoke her voice now a glacial whisper. "You WILL unite all hunters to fight in the coming war alongside Dan," she hissed to the man who was beginning to turn blue. "If I have to eliminate you and do it myself, then believe me I have absolutely no problem doing it," she said curling her fingers further in effect tightening the grip around his heart.

Ronald eyed her coldly even while his body suffocated despite his still breathing. "He turned you," he more of said than asked. His voice was brimming with disgust.

"No, he freed me. I am, always have been and always will be a blue blade" Claire shot back at him. Claire no longer cared whether he knew it or not, the stakes were rising way too fast for it. Their world could very well end in a matter of hours. Ronald's and the wrath of other hunters meant very little to her at that moment. "Dan only broke the spell my father had me under for the past fifteen years of my life," she added part of her relishing rubbing it in their faces that she had never been one of them and they never noticed it. "Now, will the hunters fight behind Dan or do the they need a new leader?" She questioned in a deadly tone.

Ronald eyed her with a deathly glare. The hatred in them compounding with every passing second. "When all this is over, I will enjoy flaying the flesh from your bones while you still draw breath," he spoke through gritted teeth.

Claire released both spells with a smile. Placing both hands on his desk, she leaned forward not at all perturbed by whatever they might try. With the kind of power he was Drawing from Dan, the two before her posed a little more very little threat to her. They too both knew that any wrong move on their part at this moment would mean both their deaths.

"Believe me," she spoke in a dark tone of voice. "You have no idea how much I look forward to what comes after this," she delivered threat in a glacial tone. Without warning or preamble, Claire infiltrated both their minds locking down all the information she'd just divulged about herself to them. Making them incapable of revealing it to anyone else without her direct consent.

It took all of Clare's will and self discipline too keep her fear from showing when as soon she pulled out of both their minds, her link to Dan broke. Try as she would, she couldn't reach Dan on the other end of it. It was almost as if.... as if Dan had ceased to exist. "Gather all the other hunter leaders," she ordered her tone hard despite her fear which was quickly turning to worry. "In a few hours I'll text you where to be and when to be there. Don't be late," she snapped before turning and starting for the door, with every step she shouted Dan's name into the silence that filled her mind.....

*******

Elly stood in petrified shock as he regarded Dan on the bed. This was not happening; it just simply was not possible. When Victor had explained being estranged to your mate to her she had not fully comprehended what he was talking about. Given how she felt for Dan, she hadn't really thought that one could not at some level within them, consciously love their mates. How astoundingly wrong she had been, it now occurred to her as she looked at the boy, at the stranger on the bed.

Dan wasn't a stranger in the logical sense. She still knew who he was and all of the things she had learnt about him in the past few days, but that was it. Her wolf didn't recognize him as her mate or anything else for that matter. It was an odd feeling to have a person go from one who meant the world to you one second to one who was slightly more than a fond acquaintance the next. She felt like the rug had been pulled from right under her feet. The world looked and felt upside down.

"Are you okay?" Carol's soft voice asked as her best friend came to stand by her, wrapping her arms around Elly offering unspoken but much needed comfort and support.

"Is this how it feels?" Elly asked her voice hollow as she glanced to Victor who was standing by the bed regarding Dan. Ember who was on the other side of it had both her hands on either side of Dan's head. Her eyes were closed as she tried to figure out what it is that was wrong with their mate. Everyone in Dan's following except for Chloe was littered around the room. Various amounts of worry in their eyes. From none at all in Two's eyes to intense worry in Claire's eyes.

"Weird, isn't it," Carol offered with a weak chuckle. "Knowing in your head that someone is your mate but not feeling anything even remotely close to what you should be feeling for them," she said she too glancing to Victor.

"Awful," Elly said in an almost inaudible whisper as he looked on at Dan. Ember's eyes opened fear and guilt in her eyes as she looked down at the boy that had shared a mate bond with her only moments before. "What is it, what's wrong with him?" Elly asked

"I.... I don't know," Ember answered in a voice soaked with fear. "It's almost like, like his mind isn't even there anymore," she said.

"Could your brother be possibly responsible for this?" Valerie posed from where she stood leaning on the wall.

"Impossible," Ember answered. "He'd need a body to do this. The one he had available to him was already severely weakened by his appearance this morning. The magic needed to break through Dan's mental barriers would have killed that body way before it got Dan to this point," she added explanatorily. "This," the phoenix said looking at Dan. "This was done by something else,"

"Well then try harder," Athena snapped at the phoenix seeming barely aware of the various wounds and injuries on her body that were gradually healing.

Ember did not argue but closed her eyes and gave it another try. Minutes passed each feeling like an eternity before Ember finally spoke. "Wait," she said catching the attention of everyone in the room as a look of concentration crept on to her face. "I can feel him, only just barely. Something is preventing me from reaching him and him from surfacing. It's as off he was buried underground in his very own mind," Ember's eyes opened this time a look of both shock and confusion in them.

"What?" Victor asked.

"Whatever, did this to Dan, did it from inside of him. From inside his own mind!" She said.

"How is that possible?" Elly questioned.

"I... I don't know?" Ember answered.

A groan left Dan drawing everyone's attention to him. His face contorted in pain as his head turned to the side. He was coming to. Barely anyone noticed it as Ember vanished in a burst of flames all their attention focused on Dan who’d just opened his eyes. He surveyed those in the room in an almost cold calculating manner.

Mustering the strength to do so, Dan slowly pushed himself up off the bed into a sitting position. Before he could fully rise however, Ember reappeared and slapped something closed around his neck. Dan fell back to the bed a cry of pain escaping him as his hands rose to the metallic collar around his neck. He ineffectually tried to pry it off before he finally looked up at Ember in a deathly glare. "Take this thing off me Eldrid," he ordered.

"Who the hell are you?" Ember questioned in a hard tone not complying with the order.

To everyone else, the question might have seemed odd but to Elly it made perfect sense. Whoever they were talking to, both she and Ember would knew that it sure as hell wasn't Dan. "Really?" Dan, or more accurately, whoever had taken over Dan's mind, questioned derisively. "I had thought you of all people Eldrid would have been the one to figure it out," he said.

"Stop calling me that!" Ember snapped.

"Why, it's what I knew you by," Whoever had taken over Dan's mind answered.

"Who the fuck are you?" Athena posed in a dangerous tone.

The one that had taken over Dan's mind looked up from Ember to the demon. "I am the one who started all this," he answered.

Ember's eyes widened is disbelieving shock. The look in her eyes betrayed that several things were now starting to fall into place. Things were starting to make sense with the new realization that she had just made. Even though Elly knew that it wasn't really Dan, it felt odd to see the rage and hatred that bubbled up in Ember's eyes as she regarded him.

"Lord Arwain," she called out that same hatred in her voice.

A smile crossed Dan's expression as he turned to regard Ember....

*******

If you enjoyed this please don't forget to vote and comment.

I wanted to ask you something. (Please answer honestly, bitter truth will serve me better than flattery). Am I getting better at this? I mean is there improvement from chapter one of Book One coming this way? Or is it getting worse? Or is there no change? I'm asking coz I want to keep putting out better and better material, so I'm checking with you to see if I'm on the right track... (Please be as specific as you can be with any criticisms you have to offer, cite examples.) Tips and pointers are also welcome... (PS: I already know I suck at the editing 😊😂😂😊, so you can skip that one...😅😂)

Also, the whole of Book Two of the Arwain Chronicles (Including Chapter Ten) is up on amazon (@ https://goo.gl/ThRbpX ). You can also get Book one of the Arwain Chronicles here, (@ https://goo.gl/K2tfAz). If you haven't already bought one for yourself, a loved one or friends, then please head on over to Amazon and do so.

You and everyone you get to buy the books are so much appreciated. Thank you :)