69__The Enchanted and The Trueblood

The Onyx sky was aglow with the sunset as Viktor stalked through the forest, his entire mind and soul focused on one thing. Kamilla.
He let his feet move of their own will, taking him to where he could feel her.
Viktor didn’t care if Rogan had Kamilla on a rock in the middle of a lava river, he would find her and bring her back. Then he would give himself the pleasure of breaking every bone in Rogan’s body and crushing him until he was nothing but dust and ashes.

A sudden vibration in his pocket indicated a call and without breaking step or focus, Viktor silently pulled it out and put it to his ear.
“Viktor?!” Damon said on the line. “Demetrius just phoned me. Where are you?”

Viktor’s jaw clenched. “Rogan took Kamilla.”

“*What?!* How? You know what, tell me where you are.”
Viktor’s grip tightened on the phone. “I’m going to get her back. Stay out of it.”

Without waiting to hear Damon’s response, Viktor pulled the phone away from his ear and let it drop from his hand onto the forest floor.
Rogan had finally done it. He'd managed to piss Viktor off to a point of no return. He'd get the fight he'd been so goddamn desperate for. And Viktor wouldn't stop until one of them dropped dead.

With his mind set, Viktor stalked through the forest, heading for the mountains. He felt her there. When a force shifted before him, Viktor would have marched right through it if it hadn't transformed and turned into a damn person.
His feet stopped as Ursula stood before him, sweeping a hood off her head.

Viktor’s teeth gritted. "Get out of my way, witch.”

Ursula’s face was tense with fear, but she tried to mask it. She lifted a hand before him. “Stop there, King. This isn’t the way it should end.”

The power was coursing through Viktor’s body, his fists clenching to suppress it. “Get. *Out*. Of my way.”

Ursula’s hand was trembling, but she remained firmly planted in his way. She had to stop him. This was not the way she’d wanted this to end! “Viktor, wait,” she said to him. “This really must not happen! Nobody needs to die!”

“Really?!” Viktor demanded. “Did you tell Rogan that when he was killing my Queen’s father? When he was killing my parents?! Did you tell him that or did you hold back because he’s one of yours?” Ursula’s mouth parted and Viktor’s lips curled with distaste. “I can only wonder how a Cassius vamp became an Elder of Onyx! Was it some spell that you cast on my father?”

Ursula shook her head. “Trust me, I—”

“Trust you?!” Viktor growled, his anger beyond control now. “Trust a sorceress?”

Ursula nodded. “Yes, trust a sorceress! What was it that your father had against us, Viktor? Do you even *know* the truth?”

Viktor gritted his teeth in impatience. “It was not my father, it was my mother who taught me to distrust and avoid your kind! Now leave before I unleash my fury upon you.”
Ursula’s heart was trembling more than it ever had before but she couldn’t walk away. He had to know! “Your mother had her reasons for hating us! My King, please...” Holding her hands together, she pleaded with him. “Don’t do this...”

Viktor glared at her. “If he’s touched a hair of her head... know that I will make him and the whole of Cassius pay!”

Ursula shook her head as her eyes filled with tears. “He hasn’t! I swear. He won’t hurt Kamilla. King, please! Allow me to speak with him... Rogan is not pure evil. He’s only hurt, Viktor. If you go there now, it will only hurt the innocent. Let me talk to him—”

“You should have talked to him before he start killing Onyx Royals! Why didn’t you keep him in Cassius if you care so much? Why let him do all the shit he’s done?!”

“We had no choice!” cried Ursula. “It wasn’t us who sent Rogan to Onyx. It was your father who *ripped* him away from us and brought him here! It was your father who refused to bring him back to us even when we *begged*...”

Viktor’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Excuse me? You’re telling me that Darrius was holding him hostage?”

Ursula shook her head. “No... Viktor... My sister, Donna... she was killed. And she was killed by an Onyx Vamp. And that Onyx Vampire was Darrius, your father!”
Viktor stared at her.
Ursula wiped at the tears on her face. “He terrorized her for years—”

“Bullshit!”

“It’s true!” she cried. “Donna shamed my parents. She became pregnant and left the castle to stay in the Cassius forests where she practiced her Magic and gave birth to her son... Rogan.”
Viktor released a hard breath. “Rogan... is a Cassius Royal. That, I know.”

Ursula shook her head. “You don’t know *everything*, dear. Donna was all that boy had! Darrius never wanted anything to do with Donna after he found out she wasn’t a Trueblood, but half Enchantress. Rogan grew up in that forest with *no one* but his mother until he was eleven which was when Donna... was killed. Rogan saw it... he saw your father murder his mother. By the time my father’s heart had softened enough to go into the forests to find Donna and her son, she had already been killed and Rogan had been taken.”

Viktor’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t have time for this. Get out of my way!”

Ursula dropped to her knees. “King, *please*!! You must listen to me! Rogan is far more stubborn than I could handle that’s why I couldn’t make him stop. The evil within him is only borne from his anger and hatred, Viktor. It’s *not* the real him! It’s just the anger and sadness that’s done it, King. He had no one! He only knew of us the year we came to Onyx to demand that Darrius return him to us! That was when he knew he had family, even though Darrius refused to give him back to us. All he gave us for our pleas was a war.”

Viktor snarled in frustration. “There is *no* logical explanation as to why my father would keep the son of a *sorceress* in his Kingdom and even make him Elder—”

“It because Rogan was his son too!” cried Ursula.

The air seemed to freeze around them, nothing but Ursula’s harsh breathing was heard as Viktor stared down at her with a dark frown.

“What did you say?”
***************************

Kamilla shuffled back on the polished wood floor, looking up at the high roof of the gigantic cave home where she’d woken up an hour ago. She sighed. Kidnapped for the second time. This just wasn’t okay. Why was she such easy kidnapping prey?

Her heart was strangely at ease as she watched Rogan reappear from the darkness of one wing of his large cave.
She cleared her throat. “So... how did you build this place? I mean... a mansion in a cave? Kinda unheard of.”

His dark eyes swirled as Rogan silently studied her, thick strands of blonde hair curving over his eyes. “Your boyfriend’s taking an awful long time to get here...”

Kamilla swallowed hard, the ease in her heart quickly vanishing at the scary look in his eyes. “Uhm... why did you bring me here? Where exactly is this?”

Rogan’s mouth curved and he smiled, making Kamilla hate how such a horrid person could have such a great smile. It was wicked. “Oh, we’re at the cliff, my Queen.”

Kamilla frowned in confusion but slowly raised her brows at a sudden thought. “Wait. What cliff? Witcher’s Cliff? Like for real?!”

Rogan found himself extremely displeased by the excitement in her eyes. “I wouldn’t be happy if I were you, Kamilla,” he murmured darkly, crouching down to her level. “This hideout is on the flat top of the mountain... but below this is the cave that forms Witcher’s cliff. If you ever saw the size of the bats that flood that cave... and if you ever watched how fast they devour anybody on that cliff... you wouldn’t be that happy.”

Kamilla’s smiled disappeared to be replaced by a face pale from fright. “Bats? R-real... bats?”

“Yes. They eat people to the bone.” Rogan’s smile reappeared and he rose to walk over to his bar where he poured himself one of the best Cassius wines. “Don’t worry,” he told her. “If Viktor gets here on time, maybe he’ll spare you the torture. Besides, I’d much rather feed *him* to the bats on the cliff.”

Kamilla was about to respond when another female voice reached them. Her first thought was that Rena had arrived, but when Kamilla heard the yelling voice more clearly, her entire body froze.
It was a banshee.

The doors were thrown open and Kamilla stared in shock as Sasha strode in, her hair swaying behind her.
“Rogan. Why don’t you answer when I call?” she asked and then slowly looked at Kamilla with a malicious smirk. “Oh, goody. The Queen’s come to play.”
Kamilla could barely breathe. “What... how...”

Sasha pouted. “Aw, I’m disappointed. I was expecting a better reaction. Or are you too tongue-tied to say anything?”

Kamilla bit the inside of her cheek. “You evil bitch,” she muttered disbelievingly.

Sasha threw her head back and laughed, ignoring how Rogan rubbed his ear at the loud sound. “That’s what I’ve *been*!” she yelled at Kamilla. With a chuckle, Sasha did a mocking little bow. “*My Queen*. Ha-ha! Did you fall for my acting? I’m amazing, aren’t I? And a good thing too because Rogan needed someone he could trust more than that witch—”
“I told you,” growled Rogan at Sasha. “To never say a word against Rena.”

Kamilla turned to him. “Where *is* Rena? What did you do to her? You knew, didn’t you? When she came to ask me for help. You knew about it. That’s why you got this banshee to help you instead!”

Rogan looked at her over his glass. “Yes, I knew. But I was giving Rena a chance. Giving her the chance to show me I could still trust her. But then she betrayed me...”

“You’re holding her prisoner!” Kamilla screamed. “She owes you no loyalty!”

Rogan scoffed. “And so what? You owe Viktor no loyalty, but yet you’d clearly die for him.”

Kamilla frowned. “W-what?”

Rogan’s mouth curved. “What’s wrong? Don’t act like you don’t know. Your souls have been intertwined for centuries, Kamilla. Yours and Viktor’s. When he killed you... in the body of that little English girl... you were so loyal to him, you came back. Just to die again.” He shook his head in mocking disapproval as Kamilla stared up at them.
“More like obsessed, if you ask me,” murmured Sasha.

Kamilla clenched her jaw. “Where’s Rena?”

Sasha smirked and with eyes starting to powerfully glow, she pointed towards the living area where Kamilla was shocked to see Rena. Her unresponsive body hovering in the air, carried by Sasha’s power.
Sasha lowered Rena onto the floor and turned to Kamilla. “Just a bit of what Truebloods can do,” she bragged.

Kamilla glared up at them. “You two are delusional if you think you’ll get away with this. Viktor’s going to rip you to shreds!”

Rogan suddenly flung his glass at the far wall, loudly shattering it into a thousand sharp pieces. The crash echoed through the home as he turned to Kamilla in fury.
“Viktor’s going to do *what*?” he growled. “Let him then! I’ve waited centuries to kill that little bastard. Let him come here and *try* me! I am going to take everything he stole from me! *Everything*! And I’m going to destroy it.”

Kamilla felt herself tremble right down to her toes but she didn’t break her stare. “You’re delusional. Viktor took nothing from you, Rogan!”

“Everything he has is *mine*!” Rogan yelled making Kamilla jump. He glared at her, chest rising rapidly with harsh breaths. “What? Did you think I’d be sorry for killing his parents? Never! Why would I let *him* have a mother... when *mine* was killed right before my eyes?”

Kamilla went very still and stared at Rogan with wide eyes.

“Why would I let *him* have a family when I had to live in a Kingdom that was never my home and pretend to like it?! I had to listen to these Onyx bastards insult my mother's people and I had to agree with them! I had to watch Darrius marry some Trueblood bitch and have another son with her... and pretend I never existed. The old bastard just pretended I was *never* his son.”

Kamilla’s mouth was hanging wide open as she stared up at Rogan. This was impossible. What she was hearing couldn’t be true!

Rogan chuckled bitterly. “He killed my beautiful mother and turned me into this...” Stretching out his arms, he turned around before Kamilla. “*This*... is what he made me.”

The words held so much raw pain that Kamilla couldn't help but be heartbroken. She gulped as she stared at Rogan.
Only when Sasha gasped in fright did Kamilla realize that her heart could feel Viktor close to her. Startled, she looked at the entrance and froze at the sight.
Viktor stood there, dark in appearance and in aura as he watched Rogan with unhidden rage.

Rogan saw him and slowly lowered his arms with a cold smile. “Oh, look who it is. Welcome... little *brother*.”