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You are woken up suddenly by the sound of breaking glass. As your eyes adjust to the semidarkness, you realize you are in a small recess in the wall. You force down the nausea from the aether and begin to get your bearings. As you hear the distant scratch of metal against the wall and the acrid stench of gunpowder, it reminds you of why you are there in the first place.
There is a man in your house by the name of Ethan Winters in a desperate search to find his daughter, Rose. And he is willing to kill your wife and adoptive daughters to get her.
“Filthy rat!” you hear your wife Lady Alcina Dimitrescu snarl.
“Alcina!” You run your fingers along the stone to find an opening to make your escape.
You remember when you heard the first signs of the attack. You immediately went to your shared bedroom with Alcina, slid back a wall panel and retrieved your crossbow from your old vampire hunting days. You were just beginning to fit a bolt into your crossbow when you heard the door opening. You aimed your crossbow at the door and were relieved to see Alcina ducking under the door frame holding her hat.
When she saw you, she stopped dead. “What do you think you are doing, iubirea mea?”
Strapping the bow to your back, you replied, “Defending our castle. What else?”
“No.” You look up surprised, and see her red lips are drawn in a thin line. “I won’t allow it. It’s far too dangerous for you.”
You narrowed your eyes at that. “I think if you remember correctly, I can hold my own in a fight. Now where is he?’
You crossed your way to the door and she put a hand against your chest. “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that,” she sighed and pulled a handkerchief from her glove. “I’m afraid you leave me no choice.”
Your eyes widened and you took a step back. “Alcina, don’t-” But she’d already taken out her handkerchief and pressed it to your nose and mouth. As you breathed in the aether, she said softly as she gathered you up in her arms, “There now. Sleep, my darling, just sleep. There’s a good pet…”
Now she has stuffed you in the same place as you stored your crossbow. Alcina knew you were immensely claustrophobic, but it seems that she was more worried about protecting you. You take a look at your hands, bloodied from scratching the stone. Stifling a sob of frustration, you then resort to throwing your body weight against the wall.
“Dammit,” you say as you launch yourself repeatedly against the wall to no avail. Your shoulder is screaming in pain but you give one final rush. You are so weary from the physical exertion that you trip and fall on your hands. Ignoring the sharp and sudden pain in your hands as they slap the floor, you look up and realize that in your fall, you tripped a mechanism that allowed the wall to open.
You crawl out and stretch out your legs, which have pins and needles running up and down them for being in a confined space for so long. You must have been asleep for a couple hours.
You hear the door open and you see Alcina standing there with a horrified expression on her face. “Coming to check up on me?” you say snidely.
She crosses the room and takes you roughly by the shoulder. You look into her golden eyes and you have never seen them so angry. “Yes, as a matter of fact, I was,” she snaps. “That aether was supposed to hold for a couple more hours. Get back in there and stay there like a good pet. You’re not fighting and that is the end of the discussion.”
You can’t help it. You explode in anger. “So that’s it then? You think I’m too weak to fight? What, am I too mortal? Is that it? I don’t care. I’m going out there. If I die, I wanna die protecting my family.”
“NO!” Alcina roars, shaking you roughly. She then sinks to the ground sobbing brokenly. “No. I can’t lose you too. It would break me. It would break me.”
Your blood suddenly runs cold and you take her face in your hands and look at Alcina as if for the first time. Her eyes are red from crying. Mascara is running down her face. “Darling, what is it?” you ask, dreading the answer. “What’s happened?”
“Bela,” she chokes out. “And Cassandra. Our oldest and middle child are gone, my love.” She puts her head on your shoulder and weeps.
Tears sting your eyes as you wrap your arms around her neck and hold her close. Bela, always so responsible. She had always wanted to be a true lady like her mother. And Cassandra, who had taken the longest to warm up to you, but eventually was comfortable enough to let you go on hunts with her.. Both of their lives, snuffed out in a blink. You give Alcina a kiss on her forehead as you contemplate multiple and very painful ways to disembowel Ethan Winters.
A scream pierces the night. “Mother!”
You instantly exchange glances. Her expression grows steely as she stands up and nods to you. An unspoken message passes between the two of you. You quickly grab your crossbow and follow your wife out the door. When you walk out, you stifle a gasp.
The castle is in shambles. Bullets pockmark the damasked wall. You observe scores of scratches on the banisters from Alcina’s claws. As you step over broken crockery from a smashed vase you nearly trip over a painting. With a lump in your throat you notice that it’s the portrait Alcina had painted herself of Bela, Cassandra, and Daniela. You remember Alcina complaining about how hard it was to have them all sit still long enough for their portrait. Aclina pretends not to notice as she ducks under the lintel and into the library.
“Daniela?” Alcina calls. The light of the moon from the smashed in skylight casts an eerie glow over the calcified remains of Daniela. Alcina lets out a sound that is somewhere between a groan and a scream. A sound of unadulterated pain. She leans down and puts a trembling hand to Daniela’s cheek. “It was cold, wasn’t it Daniela?” Alcina whispers softly. You suddenly hear a gunshot and there he is, that hateful man that wiped out your daughters’ lives while claiming to save the life of his own.
Alcina turns to him, golden eyes glittering with seething hatred. “The whole bloodline of House Dimitrescu is done in??? By the likes of you??”
Ethan doesn’t respond. He takes another shot, this time aimed at you. Alcina covers you with her body and the bullet grazes her back. Without saying another word, Alcina scoops you up in her arms and runs for the door. You notice your head is near her rosette pin, where each rosette represents each of your daughters. Your vision suddenly goes blurry with tears.
Alcina bursts out of the castle, across the drawbridge and finally rests at the gates, setting you on the ground. You take her face in your hands. “We should run away. To Bulgaria. We’ll leave everything behind. Ethan Winters, Mother Miranda, the other Lords. All of it. We can just be together. We could be so happy.”
Alcina doesn’t say anything. She looks at you with a watery smile and then grabs the back of her head and kisses you hard. You are surprised, but kiss her back as her lips move hungrily over yours, your hands gently cupping her neck. She breaks the kiss and rests her forehead against yours. “I love you,” she whispers, tilting your head up to look into her eyes. “Always remember that.”
“I love you, too,” you say, as she gives an imperceptible nod over your shoulder. “Alcina-”
Strongs hands grab you from behind and toss you over a shoulder. You look back to see who has grabbed you and it’s Heisenberg. Alcina is telling him something, her voice surprisingly calm. “There is a safe house not far from here. Take her there and make sure no harm comes to her.”
“Understood,” Heisenberg says gruffly.
You suddenly realize with horror what Alcina is doing. You whip your head around to face Alcina and she flinches at the look of betrayal on your face. “Alcina, you can’t be serious,” you hear your voice crack. “What are you doing?”
“What needs to be done,” she puts out a trembling hand and gently caresses your jaw. “Forgive me, my love.” She kisses your lips briefly and then turns back to the castle.
Heisenberg has also started to go but you are not done. “Alcina, no! Don’t do this! He’ll kill you! Please!” you scream helplessly over Heisenberg’s shoulder. You start pummeling your fists against Heisenberg’s back like a squalling child. “Put me down, you bastard! Put me down! My wife needs me! Alcina! ALCINA!”
Heisenberg’s grip does not loosen in the slightest. You look back at Alcina and she has pulled the winch that will close the drawbridge, cutting you off from the castle. She turns to look at you one last time and even from far away, you can’t mistake the tears glistening in her eyes. She then squares her shoulders and walks in.
Finally spent, you lean your head against Heisenberg’s chest and sob brokenly. He gently strokes your hair. “I’m sorry, honey,” he whispers softly. “It’s what she wanted.”
When you arrive at the safe house, a dragon’s roar splits the night.