Chapter 24

"Why the fuck are you just now telling this?" Declan growled.

Brielle shrugged. "Don't know. I guess because it didn't seem anything? Just something weird."

Declan and Leighton both shot her irritated glances. Then Leighton muttered, "Well, it is! It's actually a big anything!"

Brielle bristled. "How the hell was I supposed to know that!"

She had a point. It wasn't as if either one of us knew much about this jacked-up situation. "Hey, ease up, guys," I murmured. "We have both just learned about this shit, remember?"

Leighton mumbled something, then stated, "From now on, if it seems weird, tell it, okay?"

I, and Brielle both, nodded.

~DECLAN~

I could feel the change coming. It was time to go. Down in the caverns, there was no sunlight or darkness to judge the time, but my body was letting me know. Time was short, the change could happen anytime, and turning to Leighton, I watched him nod. He could feel the change coming too. With a breath, I turned my eyes to Sydney, and I could read in hers she knew I was leaving. Within her gaze, everything I felt for her, was reflected at me, and it tore me apart. If things had been different, if I wasn't a sylph, if I were human, I would marry her. But as it stands, it could only ever be a wish. 

As I stared at her, wanting what I could never have, the first pain hit me and turning, I bolted from the room.

Within minutes, I was outside, and the first bone broke, then the second. I fought the change, needing distance. I could not change here, everything I loved was within the walls behind me, and with one bite, I spelled their death, for the Darkmore would shred them. I was a killer, and even though they were all immortal, that immortality would not hold against me. Vitaba had created the deadliest creature known to exist when she'd created the Darkmore. I wondered if even she had known when she was creating it, what she was bringing into existence.

As the trees around me began to turn red, I knew it was too late. I could go no further, the Darkmore had arrived. The last sound I was aware of was the howl that burst from deep within my chest.

~LEIGHTON~

Damn. He hadn't gotten away before the change had overtaken him.  Running to the metal door, I slammed it shut, throwing the locks in place. Then turning to Sydney and Brielle, I muttered, "Ladies, he changed within the protective boundary, so he is locked in it with us. Sydney, no matter what, DO NOT, try to stop him. He can't get through this door, but it's going to sound soon like death has arrived. And in truth, it has."

No more had the words left my lips than I felt the presence of a Darkmore enter the house. "Okay, get ready, here he comes," I called, and within seconds, the demon of hell was trying to rip the door off its hinges.
"Oh, my God, that's Declan?” Brielle cried as a roar rent the air, followed by snarls and a loud tearing at the door. 

Had we underestimated his strength? I couldn't help wondering, as the door shook and bulged on its foundation. As I watched, the door moved, and I knew we had. The Darkmore was ripping the heavy, fortified metal door free of its frame as if it were nothing more than a wooden one. Fuck! Whirling around, I hesitated, I didn't know what the hell to do. I couldn't stop him. No one could but Sydney. Suddenly, the feeling of Declan surrounded me, and I knew in an instant, that what was at the door, was not him, but he was coming.  Soon he'd be in the small tunnel before this cavern with the other Darkmore, and after the last meeting, I suddenly feared for my brother. The older beast had damn near taken Declan's human form once he had changed back, and I didn't know how strong he was this soon after recovering. A sound jerked my head in Sydney's direction. She had a blue nebulous ark of flames forming around her, and her eyes were wide as she gasped, "Leighton, I can't control it! It is protecting me!"

The flames grew, the room intensifying in heat, and I knew Brielle and I was in trouble for the room quickly turned into a furnace. Flames began leaping off Sydney and lighting the books on fire, and heating the cave's walls. Blue flames, now with white sparkles in their centers walked over Sydney's skin, not affecting her, but Brielle and I had no such protection. Sydney was turning into a supernova, and nothing would survive the explosion. Within seconds, Sydney's fire would reach the temperature for combustion, and nothing stood a chance of survival; everything would be incinerated within seconds. She would create the bottleneck I feared if not stopped.

Grabbing a hold of Brielle, I prayed my actions worked, and quickly turning into the wind, I absorbed her atoms, reducing her to a swirling mass of particles, then with her swirling within my winds, I blew us out between the creases in the door the Darkmore had created and blasted past both Darkmore's somehow catching Declan's eyes within the red glow of the Darkmore's just as the door behind me exploded and the force of Sydney's power threw me against the wall of the cave, but never releasing Brielle, I took the blow, then regathered myself in the hellfire, and even as my wind began to wan beneath the strength of Sydney's supernova, I fought forward. Behind me, I couldn't hear a sound, the roar of Sydney's fire was too loud. As I slipped between the crevice into the outer cavern, I mourned the loss of my brother. I could no longer feel him, and I knew he had not survived the angry scorch of Sydney's fire. She had unwittingly ended both Darkmore's from existence, and I could only hope I could outrun her to keep Brielle and myself alive.