T. Grey: Ties That Bind

Lily found herself backing up. Rosa ran up to her and she knew she spoke but all she could do was watching the chaos happen around her. She should be moving, she should be helping, acting but fear, shock, and her own inadequacies overwhelmed her. She couldn't do any of the great things she was seeing.

Animalistic growls sounded in the room bouncing off the walls and then Thane and Jackie were there. Jackie shapeshifted into a ginger-haired cat so much larger than any she'd ever seen. And in a startling move, she sprinted across the hall, bounding up against the walls then pounced on a group of three demons at once, all snarls, growls, and claws cutting out throats and faces.

Thane shapeshifted into a beast like Lyonis' only smaller, without so much hair to where she could see the grisly muscles of the beast. He ran, diving into the fray and knocking demons off their feet, biting off limbs while sustaining his own blows.

Blood sprayed, people screamed, shouted.

Lily turned at last and saw Telal and Alrik in the midst of their own personal battle as if separated from everyone else. Maybe he'd arranged it so that only he would fight his brother or maybe that was just how it'd played out. They shot bolts of black power at each other and with each one Lily saw Telal's face turn paler.

“I need to help him.”

“No!” said Rosa. “Just stay here.”

Lily jerked her arm out of Rosa's grasp and veered right to stay clear of the battle going down. Still, she flinched and stumbled at the sound of breaking silverware, crashing tables, and walls being torn down. Lily palmed her dagger as Telal staggered backwards under the force of Alrik's spell. Whatever Alrik was casting at him he was trying hard to keep it off him.

Lily took the dagger by the blade, steadied herself, then let it fly. The blade speared through the air turning end over end before landing in Alrik's stomach. The demon king stopped casting as electrical surges jolted through his body. He jerked the blade from his gut and threw it away.

Lily had only a moment before the force of his lethal gaze landed on her, making her the soul focus of his attention. Then he yelled something in demonic and several things happened all at once.

Something black and ugly struck her in the gut, lifting her off her feet, then slamming her to the ground. The pain was instant and engulfing, pushing its way inside of her and eating at her. Her lungs struggled to breathe air and blood burst from her nose and mouth. She tried to move but pain only intensified. From the corner of her eyes she watched Telal's shocked expression as he turned on Alrik with the most vicious face she'd ever seen him make.

The pain was too much and Lily let it pull her into unconsciousness.

Telal watched Lily fall to the ground and knew she'd die. He knew the spell that Alrik had just cast upon her would bring so much pain she'd wish she were dead until finally the spell worked its magic and strangled the life from her, cutting off her airways and clotting her arteries.

Telal shook with rage. He advanced on Alrik and casted his own magic, using the bit of darkness that resided deep inside him to tear him down to the ground and choke the life from him. Alrik fell to his knees, clutching his neck, the veins on his forehead sticking out thick and hard from the blood pumping in his body.

“It didn't have to be like this.” He stood over his brother's body sword in one hand and picked up the dagger Alrik had tossed away. He came back to his brother and stabbed him in the chest, yanking the blade from him before the electrical currents could ravage his body. He wanted this to be slow, as painful as his bleeding heart.

Telal surveyed the room and found his team winning. Bleeding and hurt, but winning. Rosa was kneeling over Lily and he forced himself away from the sight. It hurt so much to look at her that it staggered him. It took every ounce of strength inside him not to fall to his knees and crawl to her, hold her one last time. Vengeance first. He needed blood.

“It was always going to be like this,” his brother choked out on bloodied lips.

Telal fingered the blades in his hand then dropped one. “You're going to suffer as you've made her suffer.” Moisture gathered in his eyes and he blinked until it went away. His chest felt so tight it hurt to breathe. He only managed to breathe by sucking in air through his nose.

Telal held his palm to the ground and called forth the dark energy of the earth, of the darkness that lay deep in the rift. His powers were weak, still sapped, but still he coaxed the dark powers to heed him and answer his call. A vibrating energy flowed over him—a sickly feeling like a cold sweat over his skin. Black, twisted, gnarled hands, then arms cracked through the stone floors. Skeletal bodies with dead skin hanging from their bodies, some with eyeballs hanging from their sockets, pulled themselves out of the floor. Clothes still clung in tatters to their bodies, reminiscent of the demonic robes of royalty.

“Do you recognize them?” Telal said, gritting his teeth between words. Sweat poured from his body with the effort it took to call the dead from the grave. His thighs and arms shook, burned, his heart pounded too fast to be healthy, and he was sure that at any moment he'd collapse.

Alrik's head lolled before he finally saw the beings coming towards him. His eyes widened with terror. “It... it can't be. I had them killed.”

“Exactly.” Telal controlled the summoned dead, previous victims from Alrik's treatment and sent them toward their new victim. “You'll pay for touching Lily.”

Telal didn't know how they died but knew Alrik had been the culprit. The undead fell on Alrik with scratchy snarls, bony fingers and jagged teeth. Then a white beam of light shone down upon them, so bright he turned away from the sight lest his pupils sear. When he turned back around Arianna stood in front of Alrik, the skeletal bodies crushed ashes beneath her sleeping robe.

“Telal Demuzi, I will not let you kill him.”

“Renege the throne and I won't kill you, Alrik.” He was glad his voice sounded steady because the room kept shifting around him. He hoped like hell he was standing still and not teetering around like a baby because that's what it felt like.

“Never,” his brother hissed.

“Step away, Arianna.”

Her soft eyes looked at him beseeching. “Please do not kill him. It's not under his control; it's never been.”

Alrik cursed then stood so fast, Telal saw two of him, and he shoved Arianna to the ground. Even her cry didn't stop him. As he squared off against him, shoulders back, legs spread, hands open and ready to cast.

“I'm stronger than you now. You can't best me.”

Telal felt himself stumble and knew that wasn't part of his imagination. Whether it was from the damage to his leg or the attacks on his body, he didn't know, but he fell to the side, catching himself on a table and pushing himself back up.

“I've always bested you and I always will.” He referred to the times when they were young and playing with wooden swords in the fields, learning how to fight under a trainer. He always won then and he had no intention of losing now.

“Your problem, brother, is that you've always been far too arrogant.”

And then both hands shot out to him and Telal's whole body seized up tight, shaking and clenching, muscles twitched with violent pulses. His breaths came in quick bursts as he fought against the magic. It didn’t work. Alrik’s powers were too strong. His throat started to squeeze shut, he could feel his neck being pinched off as if a hand was there or a thick length of rope. His body was lifted into the air until his feet dangling off the ground.