The Coven

10.

The Regretful.

Lex.

"You're telling me that for the past year and a half I've been the fool who blamed Roman for something he never did?" Lex questioned Vincent as they stood by the clear grounds, it made his chest constrict and his breathing uneven, he had blamed the man he couldn't accept to have killed his mother and hid the pain in anger and now the truth was finally revealed.

"Lex." Zach mumbled beside the alpha but he got a growl in return, his eyes turned a shade of crimson that terrified even the alpha. "You told me those wolves would escort Roman home and see that he was away from pack territory, not kill him!" Lex yelled in anger, his father had indeed told him that, and now he learns that his father had actually sent those wolves to kill Roman. "I could never accept that witch to be your mate." The older alpha growled out but all he got in return was a flurry of punches whilst he was on the ground, Lex made a spear with his will and impaled his father with it.

"Roman is perfect, he's had several chances to kill that idiot but on every turn he didn't, he just paralyzed them and put them on pack grounds, so we could easily find them, he's not cold or malicious, you hate his family so much so that your paranoia made me lose a mate!" The alpha screamed in anger at his father, no one could contain him when he was outraged, they all hung their heads low in shame, Zach the most because he had indeed attacked Roman several times accusing him of something he never did.

"Alpha." The faint voice of the girl Lex's father had chosen for him floated in the air, when Lex turned to the girl a feral growl left his lips, how dare she even think she could match up to Roman, his beast didn't want her, it never has, it wanted the witch, so Lex turned on his heels, he wanted Roman but before he got anywhere a yellow barrier stopped him. "I love you cousin but you can't go, do you really think if you run there now to tell him, he will forgive you, after everything that happened today." Vincent argued as he snapped his fingers and the barrier vanished.

Lex knew he was right, there was no way he was going to want him anywhere near him, he had clearly messed up, so in his self pity Lex finally fell to his knees, he had no idea what he was going to do, just as everyone calmed down Lex spun into the air then veered right to land on his feet, the other wolves behind him were shocked to see him dodge nothing but air, then the creature that almost attacked him made its presence known, a three headed serpent, this was not good.

~~~~~
Roman.

As everyone finally settled in his house after the ritual, they could admit they were completely exhausted, he out of all his now coven members recovered quickly so he was now up and in his workroom mixing ingredients in different apparatus. "Hey, you're awake." Allen and Thalia stood by the doorway, they now seemed perfectly fine.

"I woke up a while ago." Roman retorted amused by the two as they walked into his workroom. "I made dinner, all your parents know you're safe and sleeping over, your pops was kind enough to drop off cake by the way Thalia, he said to enjoy." Roman relayed everything making the girl smile, the two of them were kindred in a way and Roman was glad to have met Thalia along with her family. "He really likes you, said you remind him of dad." Thalia exclaimed as she stood by the healing pod in the corner, Allen chuckled at the statement but he wasn't the only one, Roman chuckled too but only because he appreciated the compliment.

"Who is this, she looks a bit like Lex." Thalia mumbled as she got a closer look at the woman in the pod, she was perfectly stable, she began to look through her records and realized the woman had been in the pod for almost a year or more. "That's Lex's mother, she tried to protect me when her mate sent wolves to kill me the night Lex couldn't acknowledge me as his mate." Roman finally confessed the truth shocking the girl with silver hair.

"That explains a lot." She regained herself as Roman moved about the pod to get something. "Did you get the ingredients?" Allen questioned as he held basilisk blood in his hand. "I did." Roman replied as he snapped his fingers and several roots appeared by the table. "Wait I recognize those, cursed damphier roots, hard to cultivate." Thalia interjected as she walked to the table. "Wait, these are used as neutralizing agents or a binder, Roman what happened, why do you need those?" She added looking at him for an explanation, and he was ready to give it.

"Lex's mother helped me escape the wolves, I was badly injured when it happened, but before we could go anywhere someone attacked her, and poisoned her along with the wolves that I had fought, she should've died but I got her to a healing pod just then, I then placed a decoy in her place so that Lex and his pack would believe she was dead, the healing pod couldn't help with the kind of poison used on her, so I siphoned some of it away but it wasn't enough, eventually it would spread again from the source, so I had Allen check her blood and he found out that she had been poisoned with a variation of kanima venom only more deadly." Roman explained as he moved to the table to help Allen mix the ingredients.

"But couldn't you just make the healing potion and purge her blood with your flame?" The witch argued but Roman shook his head. "The poison couldn't be purged, I would've killed her plus her aggressive shifter nature made it impossible to use the healing solution on her—."  Roman stated but Thalia cut him off. "So you needed to make a potion that would neutralize it and have the healing solution do its job." She finished and both male witches in the room nodded.

"Willow wood, grounded." Allen mumbled as he dropped the scoop of the powder into the beaker. "Angelica root, then add mountain ash, Thalia I will need you to take over when Allen places the two other ingredients." Roman asserted and the witch immediately took Allen's place, Allen began placing enchantments on the beaker and the damphier root, thousands of intricately designed runes appeared on the two rotating clockwise. "Add the oak wood sap, then I will add the cursed root, when Allen has finished the cleanse." Roman further instructed and each of the witches with him nodded in response.

Thalia did as told and finally Roman added the last ingredient as Allen still kept cleansing and placing enchantments making sure the potion wouldn't be corrupted by the poison in the wolf's system, when it was finally complete, flames erupted by Roman's palm, their golden hue made Thalia stare at them in awe, he chuckled as he moved to the pod and levitated the potion along with him. "Allen you know what to do, Thalia I will need you to stabilize the pod." The witch instructed as his flames were merged with a runic circle that appeared on the pod, symbols and codes appeared instantly as Roman injected the antidote into Lex's mother.

Allen appeared next to Roman with a dagger, he plunged the blade into the wolf's chest and when he pulled it out a black liquid flowed out of the wound, Roman knew it was the poison, what remained of it, the healing mixture they had made began working as the last of the poison was out, Thalia stabilized the pod but also released her fog and it coiled into the pod, when it reached poison, the fog pulled it out and changed its form into a crystallized state.

Roman nodded to her as they finally closed the pod, Lex's mother began healing rapidly making all three smile. "She should be awake in the next day." Allen mumbled with a smile toward Roman, the witch could feel himself finally feel relief, finally let go of the guilt because of what happened to Lex's mother, she was going to be okay.

Before they could walk out of the workroom Allysa burst through the door with Vincent. "Allen, we need help please." The boy begged as he spat blood on the floor, he was severely injured, something was very wrong.

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LMJ