Silvana woke up in the late afternoon with a pounding hangover. She rustled in the armchair she'd passed out in, batting a hand against the cold sweat at her collar. Maybe it was just too much of the good scotch, but Silvana's sleep was plagued with nightmares about Bruce, his body writhing in agony. For a moment and in her sleep, right before she had woken up to the fireplace beside her and with the fuzzy blanket on top of her, she had thought she heard Bruce growling her name, as if he was so close yet so far to her that she could hear his voice ever so slightly. Then, her phone pinged with a text from Amelia: "Kurt got back from the werewolf pack meeting and Bruce wasn't there. Is he with you?"Silvana slogged out from her chair and stumbled around for her footing. Last night her father mentioned Bruce attending The Meeting of Moons, and now Bruce hadn't even been there? She recalled the location spell that showed Bruce to be inside her house. Could that be why she heard
A new power, a greater magic than she'd ever felt, flowed through Silvana. Her eyes glowed fuchsia and she clenched her fists, ready to roar with raw strength. Lightning snapped and sparked off the symbols and at her but she was completely unaffected, and the lightning fazed out as wisps of purple flames surrounded her. She held both hands up and with all her might, she repeated, "Tu Fui, Ego Eris!"The incantation meant: I was you; you will be me. These ancient words as old as time itself had been made by primordial lovers from her family tree who refused to be separated.The stone door cracked with pink light, then turned to rubble.Silvana saw Bruce laying on the metal table with a tray of surgical supplies beside him. "Bruce!" she called out, her voice loud and strengthened enough through magic to cause an echo that rumbled down dust from the cellar's ceiling. She sprinted to her mate and possessed with her newfound magic, she tore him out of his shackles. Her eyes r
Bruce's gruesome howling batted leaves and small branches off trees, and his mouth opened wide before Solaris, wide enough to allow each glimmering silver tooth the size of Solaris's arm to shine in the moonlight. Solaris had talked a lot of big game at the council meeting and in front of the species leaders, but it was mostly for show. With Bruce towering over him, snarling gobs of spit onto his red velvet shirt, Solaris realized, as his mind searched for a spell he had the strength to cast, that he was not as strong as he wanted to be, and that he had messed around with the wrong forces. Now, he knew he was going to die. Bruce thumped towards Solaris, shaking the ground with each massive stride. Solaris tried to skitter away, pushing against the dirt and grass as he scraped his way back to his car. But there was no way he'd make it back in time. Bruce reeled his huge, clawed hand behind his head, and prepared to slash down at Solaris. And just then, Silvana called out
Silvana batted her lashes at Bruce, flattered that he would be so confident and supportive of her efforts to do the thing that drove her father into a deranged state where he had tried to come between them. That was how she knew Brue was a true love, because he wanted to be there right beside her no matter how difficult the path forward was. Silvana nodded and said, "Okay handsome, I agree to your deal." And she fell asleep seconds after, finally feeling happy once more as Bruce relaxed her and gently scratched the back of her head. Despite all the complications in their lives, he too fell asleep with a smile on his face, understanding that he needed to appreciate such a wonderful moment while he still had it. But Bruce tossed and turned all night, tearing at the bedsheets. His dreams were filled with the memories of being locked in the cellar, the only light emitting from the crimson binds that electrocuted his arms and legs. He woke up screaming in a warm sweat. His phone
The pack held their breath as both brothers stared at each other, their brows crinkled and jaws strong. For a moment, everybody wondered who would throw the first fist. Would it be Bruce, and would he be fast enough to even hit the nimble Kurt? Or would Kurt launch a fast strike, and would that strike be strong enough to damage someone as powerful as Bruce? Finally, Bruce did the unexpected. He put a firm and brotherly hand on Kurt's shoulder and said, "Thank you for watching over our kind while I was away." And Kurt didn't need a second thought at figuring how to play along with his brother's games. Did he think Bruce was genuine? Maybe. But Kurt needed to avoid looking like he was up to no good. So the pack gasped when Kurt took a knee in front of Bruce, lowered his head, and said, "I'm happy to help, and happier that our Alpha is back." Bruce's supporters, to which there were many, clapped, cheered, and took a knee. Many people praised Kurt for stepping up to the r
Bruce leapt down the porch steps and in full stride made for Solaris. Solaris planted his cane to the ground, rested both hands on top of it, and smiled smugly. "Back for my claws?" Bruce asked through a sneer. He curled the fingers on his hand and his werewolf claws began to extend outwards. "Then why don't I give them to you?""What's with the old man?" Kurt asked, barging his way towards the two. Kurt knew very well who Solaris Sparks was, and how he would fit into his plan, but Kurt didn't want Bruce to know that. And Bruce didn't want Kurt to know that Solaris had been holding him captive, especially since Bruce had only moments ago lied to his pack about his whereabouts. "I'm not here to fight," Solaris said, glancing at the two werewolves. Bruce stood strong and said, "You have a lot of nerve coming to my home.""Do I?" Solaris asked, tilting his head. "Because then you seem to have plenty of nerve sneaking into mine to sleep with my daughter." Kurt smacked his l
Silvana tried calling her father to no avail. She sped down the roads towards Bruce's house, and she noticed police officers and a fire truck slowing down the traffic as they cleaned the highway of glass and torn plastic from a car nowhere to be seen. "Must've been an accident," Silvana thought to herself. She rubbernecked and saw the tire tracks leading into the ravine. "What a way to go," she mumbled, shaking her head, hoping that anybody involved in the crash was alright. It hit her deeply that no matter how much magic she learned, she would never be able to save and protect everybody around her, and tragedy would befall even the most innocent and pure of people.Then she snapped her head forward and saw that the car ahead of her was much closer than she had thought, and she stomped her foot on the brakes, just narrowly avoiding rear-ending the red car in front of her. Her hair bobbed in front of her eyes and stuck to her sweaty forehead, and cars behind her all honked th
Silvana thrust the door to her house open and tossed her keys on the counter. In minutes, she threw together a spell like the one she had cast to find Bruce, except the glowing parchment in the middle of the burning purple flames on the kitchen floor showed nothing when she searched for Solaris. She tried again and again, plucking plants from her garden to be used in the spell, and despite all her efforts, each magical map she conjured showed no sign of her father. She rubbed both her hands to her head, knowing that with her location spell in particular, if there was no blue dot, no area highlighted on the map, it meant the person trying to be found was dead. Silvana dropped to her knees and the purple flames of her spell died out. She was so incredibly tired, and whatever energy she hadn't expelled by freaking out on Kurt and Bruce she had depleted with her last-ditch efforts to find her father. She tried to tell herself that everything would be okay, and that Bruce was on her s
A cooling, tropical breeze blew the leaves of the palm trees overhead, and Silvana stuck her toes in the warm sand as the sun beat down on her. Waves slapped the shoreline several feet ahead of her, and she reclined into her comfy beach chair. "I can't tell you all how happy I am," she said, "to be away from the snow and the cold." She sipped from a giant margarita that had been put inside a hollowed-out coconut with a large pink straw. "I'll stick to the shade," the pale Angus said, hiding underneath the large, canopy-style leaves from the trees. He was working shirtless at a grill, spreading out lemon slices on top of freshly caught fish. "Oh my god," Amelia said, a cocktail shaker in her hands. "Can you imagine my big Angus with a tan?" Angus peppered some potato salad, laughed, and said, "You all enjoy the sun. I'm hot enough as is at the grill. Amelia pulled down her oversized purple sunglasses, observed Angus's tight rows of abs and murmured, "Hot is right."She gave
Months later, big bells of silver adorned with blue ribbons rang loudly in the newly refurbished Silverclaw mansion. The mansion was owned technically by the silverclaw kin, but it had become a retreat for vampire, werewolf, and witch alike, and certainly required the aid and unique talent of the three separate species to be rekindled to a state beyond its former glory. Down the winding aisles of mixed company and standing at what had once been a court podium but had since been remodeled into an altar, Bruce stood tall and handsome, his chest out, ready and waiting in a dapper black tuxedo with a black bow tie. His messy brown hair had been cut and trimmed, and his face was clean shaven. He stood with a large smile on his face, though truly he was starting to get worried. Bruce glanced at his silver-strapped watch, then looked out into the stone benches filled with people casually chatting. A firm, supportive hand pressed against the top of his back. "Quit checking that thing,
Solaris grabbed the vampire's wrist and stopped her sword from decapitating Duponte. "This woman," Solaris said very seriously, "Is not the same demon who has caused us all great strife." "You speak nonsense, old man!" the werewolf next to the vampire roared. His claws dripped with Duponte's blood, staining the snow at his hind legs red. "Just because you do not have the strength to finish her does not mean I won't.""Stand down," Bruce said with a chill to his voice. He and Silvana ran over. Silvana knelt and observed Duponte's wounds. "They're bad, but she'll live," she determined. "This woman here is my family," Solaris confirmed to the werewolf and vampire, who looked dubiously at one another. "Any ill intent has been removed from her because of these two talented," Solaris paused for a moment, then addressed both Silvana and Bruce as he said, "children of mine."Bruce smirked, as he'd finally gotten the approval of the father of the woman he loved. On the snowy floor,
Bruce reverted from his massive werewolf form and back into his regular human body. His waist was covered by only the fragments of torn jeans that remained from his transformation, and he and Silvana both smirked to one another, both privy to what needed to be done now that Duponte had revealed her true form, and as the demonic energy continued to corrupt her. "You'll never be strong enough to fight me like that," Duponte angrily hissed at Bruce. Her arms grew thin and long and skeletal. Lightning whipped all around her. "I don't plan on fighting you," Bruce replied calmly and in complete control. He took Silvana's hand. "Are you ready?" he asked her. "Always," Silvana said with a smile that confused and angered Duponte. How were these two so calm in the face of her? It infuriated Duponte, and she unleashed a fierce, howling wheeze. But the truth was, Silvana and Bruce were privy to secrets that Cecilia Duponte were unaware of. It had all been inside of Solaris's journal, w
"Don't you see," Duponte said to Silvana with outraised, welcoming arms, "That I'm not your enemy."Duponte pointed to the goopy mess that was the remains of Kurt. "He, now he, was your enemy. He wanted nothing more but your blood and your father's blood."Getting even closer, Duponte pounded a palm to her chest and continued, "I, your family, want you to thrive." Silvana breathed deeply at the sight of the horrible fate that had befallen Kurt. Her heart was heavy with guilt, and for all the troubles that Kurt's mischief and sin had caused her, she still felt a sense of regret that she was not able to save him when he was in a state of delusion and pain. She stepped away from a small collection of bright orange sludge oozing towards her. Kurt hadn't been a good or decent man, but he didn't exactly deserve this. "Don't feel sympathy for this beast," Duponte said, as if reading Silvana's mind, or perhaps her crestfallen face. "Feel sympathy for your mother, for her sacrifice. For
Though Kurt's roars were strong enough to topple over trees still standing in the forest, Silvana and Duponte both stood their ground as the beast hollered. The rest of those still alive, Solaris, Angus, Amelia, and Bruce were all left frozen by Duponte's unwavering magic. Orange sludge dripped down from the blistering welts lacing Kurt's silver and black furred hide. His once amber eyes flared with the same bright, unhealthy orange. "What the hell happened to him?" Silvana asked. Duponte looked at Kurt with absolute and unequivocal disgust.She said, "He's tried, rather unsuccessfully, to enhance himself with the blood of a witch."With a tilt of her head and sniff from her nose, Duponte inspected Kurt. "Our blood, Silvana, no less, is what he's taken" she sneered. "From your father. And look at what it's done to the mongrel." Kurt howled with a raspy, unearthly voice, and driblets of orange saliva flew from his infected and rotting fangs, leaving behind acidic and flaming
Duponte walked forward leaving fiery steps behind her. A curtain of black and red lightning crackled around her skin, and her smile was both wicked and wide, as if all of Silvana's efforts were nothing more but mere entertainment. Silvana, though, could barely move; she tried to bring herself from her knee to no avail, and with one eye shut and the other squinted, she hazily watched as Duponte smacked away Bruce and Amelia, sending the two barreling into the forest. As much as she wanted to retaliate, Silvana was depleted of energy, and sealing the spirits away had drained her of any remaining magic. Duponte clutched Silvana's face with a single hand, and Silvana felt a burning that was completely unique and unlike anything she ever experienced. The pain was not like when she burned her hands ripping the bindings off of Bruce's arms when he was in her father's basement, but the burning caused by Duponte's touch was raw, unnerving, and rattled her from head to toe. Duponte glared
A flurry of crimson lightning slammed into the blue sigil left behind by Solaris and the witches, fracturing the very ground itself. Solaris reached out a hand to his daughter and shouted, "Silvana!" But it was too late. Silvana was struck with a bolt of lightning before Bruce or Amelia could do anything to stop it. Her body flew into a tree that splintered into sawdust from the impact. "No!" Bruce yelled, running over. Cecilia Duponte's laughter could be heard taunting them from the reddened skies. Bruce charged over to where Silvana had landed but was stopped by the bursting of the witches' sigil. Blue sparks surrounded him though not as fast as the hundreds of hands belonging to the once-sealed spirits. They dragged him into the dark abyss as he thrashed and roared. Solaris did what he could to repel the forces, though in truth it was little. His magic couldn't protect everybody, and spirits twice as strong and large as before, bigger than the tallest trees in the fo
The forces all paused outside of The Forest of the Damned, taking in the thick air that smelled rotten. Most of the trees were dead, black and gray husks ready to teeter over at the next sharp wind, and the few large pines that stood firmly had branches that drooped like wilting flowers, as if the very bark had been poisoned. Lightning roared above the mess of long-dead trees, but it wasn't anything new to Bruce and Silvana, who had been fighting these evils since they had returned. What hit them both differently, though, was that ghastly, heavy air, and with each breath they took it was like swallowing toxins. Everybody felt it, from the witches to the werewolves to the vampires. It was a smell of sour blood that tainted the very grass beneath the snow they all stepped on. Angus held a hand before his mouth and tried not to cough in front of Amelia for fear of seeming weak, but as he plugged his nose, she turned away and hacked into her folded elbow. Even Solaris struggled t