Page 40 of Rose and Shadows
“Stop it!” my mom yelled at him.
Remnant swung his head around all of a sudden. “It’s too late. He’s here.” He held a hand out to my mom, eyeing her and my sister. “Take my hand.” His other, he held out to me, uttering the same.
Mom resisted and then she swept her hands around, her amber magic encompassing her and Raina.
Remnant was forced back with a blast from her.
“Mom!” my younger self cried. “You’re not strong enough! Not against Father! We need help!”
Tears filled her eyes. “We’ll never be the same if I allow that! I love you too much to let you end up like that monster!”
“Ashlynn,” Remnant’s commanding voice boomed, cutting through everything.
She held her hand out instead, “Sy! Come!”
But then it was too late.
A blast of black power ripped through the house decimating half the structure.
Glass shattered.
Windows and walls were blown to hell.
Furniture toppled.
Trinkets were wrecked
My little sister screamed.
I saw my mom’s power cut out, her and my sister diving underneath the couch.
And then Morien arrived flanked by the ten vampires forced into Undead Domination that Remnant had warned about.
In the split second that they entered the house, Remnant burst toward my past self and snatched me up before Morien had noticed him being present inside the house along with my mom and sister.
I saw Remnant stop on the outskirts of the forest surrounding the house with my younger self stunned and staring up at him.
“You will be safe with me,” I heard Remnant assuring him.
Morien’s thundering, irate voice pulled my attention back to the scene inside the blown out house. “Where is Sylas, wife?”
“Out playing,” my mom spat back at him, as she staggered to her feet wrapping her arms around my sister. “He won’t be back for hours, so get out. Leave us be.”
“I need to disappear for a while due to heat from those Guardian Movement fools. So tonight is all I have. With my son currently out of reach, I’ll simply pivot and invoke my backup plan.”
“Backup plan?” my mom asked, nervously, backing away cautiously with my sister in her hold, as she held up her free palm with her magic flaming.
“I’ll use the boy to dispose of a particularly resilient enemy of mine. And then I’ll drain him. And if he fails and is murdered by said enemy before he’s able to dispose of them for me, I’ll tether him back to the mortal plane, drain his power, then cast him back to death right after.”
My mom shuddered.
Sadistic piece of shit. I ground my teeth. My mom was so afraid, my sister was scowling at Morien while trembling. She’d been such a tough little thing.
Morien snapped his fingers and I jolted as he commanded his ten vampires, “Kill them. Make it messy. When my son finds their dead bodies, I want it to be a brutal visual to behold. Every little bit will help to turn him dark, to invoke vengeance. Especially when he finds the ten of you desiccated beside him and quickly learns that The Shadowed murdered his beloved mother and little sister.”
“No! You’re not going to corrupt him and fill his gentle heart with vengeance!”
“I surely am, wife. Can you picture it now? A furious necromancer unleashed among the vampiric underground? It will be glorious destruction.”
