Chapter 61: Sister-Sister/Mother-Daughter

Alastair:

“Valene! You need to think about this! You don’t want to do anything that you’ll regret!”

As I said this, she scoffed, my words seeming to roll right off of her shoulder as she stood up from the ground, wiped the blood from her lips, and took concentrated steps toward her unwavering younger sister.

“I can assure you, dad, I’ll not regret anything that I do on this night.”

“Valene!” I growled and started to intercede.

“You!” she growled, stopping in her steps as she glared at me, her eyes darkened and full of rage. “Stay right. There.”

“On this, I’ll have to agree, daddy.” When Harlyn said this, I looked at her increduloualy. Did she not understand the grave danger that she was in?

“Harlyn, don’t do this!”

I could hardly get the word out of my mouth before a large ring of fire began to rise from the ground, separating me, and everyone else from the two of them.

“Do you really think that will stop me from-” I reached my hand out to touch it.

“I wouldn’t do that, daddy,” said Harlyn. “That flame isn’t like all the others I’ve released. It won’t stop burning. Not for a while. So you will definitely feel it.”

“What?” I’d have been highly impressed if not for the bloody circumstances.

“I’ve been working on it for a while now. Not fully mastered but well enough for what I need right now.”

“You sure you want to do that, little sister?” Valene asked. “Surely, you’ll need someone to save you. Don’t want to get in the way of that.” She shrugged. “I mean, because getting in the way is your forte after all.”

“Me!?” Harlyn bellowed angrily. “You’ve always been in the way! Since the day you came into our lives! Everything has always been about you!” she growled.

“Harlyn!” I took a step forward and the flames immediately rose.

“Don’t you dare!” she snapped at me and then turned her rage back toward Valene who wore a grin.

“Let them be, Alas,” said Merari from my side. “Better to get th is out of the way now than later.”

“She could die, Merari,” I hissed. “We both know that. Or do you care?” Because we both knew that I was not talking about Valene’s life.

She smirked. “I guess I do come off as heartless,” she said and her eyes shifted foreward regarding the argument between our daughter and my and Caris’s daughter. “She is her mother’s daughter, Alastair,” she said to me. “But I do not hold her to that charge.” she glanced up at me and then walked away.

I took another step forward as Valene and Harlyn got closer and closer to one another, my heart racing out of my chest. The idea of losing one to the other was hardly something that I could bear.

Then I felt a tug at my shoulder. “She’s right, Alastair.”

When I heard Toran from behind me, I regarded my beta with bewilderment. “You cannot be bloody serious!”

“We are beasts at our core, Alastair,” John said in addition. “It is our way to fight through our problems. Allowing them to release this will at least lead to a break through that will get us closer to resolution.” John said as his eyes steadied themselves on the oncoming fight. “Besides, this is the perfect moment.”

“What?”

He looked at me. “We’re here. Neither of them will come to any harm. Not while we’re here.”

He was right. That did not make the situation any easier to watch unfold. But I did. “As soon as this gets to be too much…”

“We will intercede.”

I believed Toran and John. In fact, there was no doubt in my mind that they’d intercede. Or at least try, but I knew that I was not the only one who could sense the intensity of Valene’s enigmatic power. It wasn’t going to be that simple. That was what I was afraid of.

“I came into your lives?” Valene spoke with indignation. “Maybe you’ve forgotten, Dove, but I was well before you. You…came into my life.”

“Is that what you tell yourself at night? That you actually were more than just some stop on the way to something better? Anything to help you sleep at night.”

“You know,” said Valene with a seemingly playful grin. “I think you have your wires crossed, little sister. I was never in your way. I paved the way for you.”

“Oh please!” Harlyn growled. “You were nothing but a speed bump on to greener pastures for mum and daddy! They didn’t need you! Any loser little human could have done what you did! The only reason they even kept you around was because of your blood! Now you are nowhere near as special as you once were! You’re nothing! You’ll always be nothing!”

Harlyn flitted forward, backhanding Valene with such force, she stumbled back. Valene grabbed her mouth, and the blood began to pour from her lip. The scent began to devour the area. Valene’s scent was still potent.

The snarls sounding from behind me was confirmation of that. “Think carefully, about whether you want to move forward the desires you are feeling,” I announced to everyone.

“Let them come!” Valene hissed. “I’m sure everyone’s been wanting piece!” She turned her back on Harlyn. “Come and try!” she growled, her eyes darkened and her rage on full display.

“No!” snarled Harlyn as she grabbed Valene by the back of her arm. “You’re mine!” she swung Valene around like a rag doll and threw her into the same car that she’d before.

It took every ounce of me not to intercede and even then, I could not stop myself from taking a step forward, when I felt the firm grip of Toran and John on either side of my shoulders.

Harlyn stampeded toward Valene, and lifted her hand to strike again, but I knew that this time it would not land. It was as if, Valene was using Harlyn’s anger to power up.

When Harlyn brought her fist down, this time, she was surprised by the swiftness of Valene’s counter.

Without struggle, she caught Harlyn’s hand into hers. “That’s enough of that.” Her gnarl was guttural and inhuman. She twisted Harlyn’s arm back.

Harlyn let out a howl of pain. Valene hadn’t snapped her arm yet, but I knew that it was coming.

“You-you think I’m afraid of you! You think that…. that you’re better than me?!” Harlyn struggled to bark through her pain. “Just because you’re no longer a weak and tormented little human that nobody ever wanted! Not even your own mother!”

With her arm still in her grasp, Valene stepped forward and so did I. This time, neither Toran nor John stopped me. We all knew that Harlyn had gone too far.

“Get her, Alastair,” I heard Merari say. “Get her now!”

But it was too late.

Valene’s eyes turned black, and a dark shadowy mist began to emanate from her. She snapped, Harlyn’s arm, the loud crack echoing dreadfully through the air.

“Harlyn! Vale, no!” I rushed forward and immediately I was forced back with such power; the wind was knocked from me. All those who attempted to intercede was met with the same fate.

“Aaaaagh!” Harlyn screamed out in excruciation.

“You know, Harly,” said Valene. “I never…needed this power…to kill you.”

Her voice was no longer even guttural, but a whispering deep, sinister voice. She twisted even further, forcing Harlyn’s knees to slam against the ground. She was in agony.

“Valene! Stop!” I bellowed as I used my power to absorb the surrounding energy. It would take a moment because whatever Vale had done, rendered me temporarily without strength.

Valene released her and just as Harlyn took a breath of relief, Vale struck with such an upward force, that Harlyn’s body lifted into the air and back at least ten feet before she hit the ground with force.

“You know,” she hissed. “I never wanted to take your place…I never wanted…any grandiose accolades or acknowledgments.” she said as she took gradual steps toward her sister.

I had to get up! I had to hurry.

Her incisors began to elongate.

“I never…wanted this power.” she hissed throatily, as her hand lifted and there emanated around her fingers, a dark power that I had never seen before.

Then finally she was standing in front of Harlyn. Her lip twitching her onyx eyes suddenly misting as she began to shake.

“The only thing…that I ever wanted from you…little sister…from anyone…was love and acceptance.”

The sorrow in her eyes quickly shifted into anger, and then immediately she began to strike.

“Vale, no!” Merari rushed forward with a penetrating power that shoved Valene away from Harlyn, knocking her into the nearby trunk of a tree.

Vale in all of her rage, recovered quickly, and immediately rushed her mother. The shadowy mist that moved around her like a simmering, and threatening smoke began to take form into the bat-like creatures. You could hear the flapping of their wings, and immediately, Valene dissipated into them, and the swarm rushed forward, slamming into Merari like a ton truck to a human.

Merari was thrown back into the pack house, the wall practically demolished. Valene reappeared into the swarm; her hands outreached in a pushing motion. She hardly spared her mother a glance before she turned around and returned her attention back to Harlyn.

“I didn’t want to do this,” she whispered as if speaking with herself. “I don’t…want to do this…Fierya,” she hissed once more.

She was struggling against herself as she kept forward. She was warring with herself internally. Was it her counterpart? Was this Fierya the reason for her dramatic shift in character?

“Stay away from me!” Harlyn screamed and as she did, I quickly rushed forward to grab her when my body was immediately stopped and lifted off of the ground.

“I do not want to hurt you,” she said with tears running down the length of her cheeks. The sadness in her eyes did not reflect her facial expression as she said, “But I will. So, stay. Back.”

With a shove of her hand, my weight was thrown like a ragdoll across the yard of the packhouse.

I was starting to become concerned as I gradually began to realize that my might alone may not be strong enough to stop her. My own daughter from committing an act that I knew she could never come back from.

“The girl only wanted live by your side…as an equal,” Valene said but in yet another different tone. “Now you will die…all because you could not accept…..”

“Valene!” A thunderous voice sounded from the broken wall of the house. “Merari!” The voice was similar in its throatiness to Valene’s but different somehow. “Wade!”

Merari surfaced from the crumbling wall, her eyes misting with rage. “Merari?”

“You want to release your anger,” she said. “You want to fight. Then fight someone who will give you a challenge!” she growled.

Now there was a mist encircling her just as it did Valene.

“Oh…” Valene grinned excitedly. “I thought you’d never ask!”

Without another word she stampeded toward Merari, and Merari did the same. When they collided, a sonic boom shattered the area, cratering the ground, and sending a large crack along the street.

“Harlyn and Valene was one thing,” said Ares. “But if you allow this,” he looked at me. “They will destroy Shadow Veil.”

“And how, Ares, do you suppose, we stop this?” I asked.

“She is my mate, Alastair,” Ares said to me.

Mate!? Both Aziz and I had awakened to the word at the same time. I looked at the boy incredulously. Surely, not!

“You bloody lie!” I snarled.

Ares looked at me with a seriousness and conviction that I had never seen before. He wasn’t. He wasn’t lying. What was I? What was I to say to this?

“And…you tell me this now? Why?” I grimaced, clenching my jaw.

“Because,” he said. “Maybe that is the key to stopping them.”