Underworld

Part 3: Chapter 11

I do not know how much time has passed when I awoke to be buried. I do know that I needed to find Eve, Selene, and David. I pushed the boards off of me with a very little struggle to see Selene do the same. I was relieved to know that she was alive and physically ok but my chest ached for some reason. "David!" I said getting up. I looked around us and saw so many fallen vampires. We traveled through the corridors and to the entrance. I couldn't help but feel guilty for all of the fallen vampires. I felt as though I have failed my teacher. When we got to the main area, it was littered with the bodies of fallen vampires as well as the living who glared at us. I bowed my head to them as a sign of sorrow and guilt. I turned to the center of the room to see David laying on the stone bed Eve was on earlier that night. Selene and I walked toward him and Sir Thomas. I teared up watching as he struggled to breathe. I kneeled to him and gripped his hand.

"Where is she?" Selene asked. I wanted to snap at her but that was my niece she was asking about. I may feel a connection to David but Eve was my blood, my family. I needed to know she was safe.

"They took her," David tells us weakly.

I placed my hand on his cheek to show we did not blame him when Thomas spoke. "They accepted her." I felt my anger rise once more. I raised my head to look at him. "As a gift from me."

I was about to attack him when images from Eve flooded my vision. I turned to Selene. "GO" I yelled. "I'll stay with David." She turned quickly and ran out.

"Iris" a weak voice called to me. I looked down at David. "I'm sorry" he struggled to say as his breathing became more labored.

I sighed and held his face in my hand. "You did all that you could," I told him in a shaky voice. I felt so many emotions at this moment. Confusion, rage, sorrow, heartbreak, and love. I placed a kiss on his lips and laid my head on his chest. I felt so lost. I closed my eyes as I felt his last breath leave him.

"This is yours and your sister's fault." a gruff voice told me

I looked up at Thomas who was full of rage and grief. "No, this is because of your inability to teach your coven how to fight properly, I know of your life in battle. I know what you did. You could have prevented all of this if you had taught your son and your men how to fight like a death dealer. You have had centuries to teach them and yet you hid like a cockroach." I snapped at him before pulling out my dagger.

"Do you know what you've done?" Selene asked in anger. "Do you have any idea?"

Thomas and I turned to her. "They're gone?" I asked in anger. She nodded to me and I gripped my dagger even tighter,

"What would you have had me do?" he asked us. "Fight to the last to protect the very one who brought this upon us?" He stood up and walked towards my sister until he was no more than arm's length in front of her. "We're defeated. Our coven is destroyed. My son is dead" he pointed at David. "Because of you." I looked at the man lying next to me. I know of a way to save him. "Why? Because he helped that child of yours." I heard Selene take a shaken breath listening to Thomas's speech. "If they kill her so be it."

Something in me snapped. "Your son died because he was fighting for you and your coven. Like I told you, if you had thoroughly taught him and your forsaken coven how to fight, they would have been more prepared."

"He was fighting because he knew running was not survival," Selene said picking up after my speech. "Those were lycans. Not extinct, more powerful than ever. That thing was twice the size of any lycan that we have ever seen."

"Including William. The first of the lycans." I tell him "They risked showing themselves after more than a decade of hiding because of her. MY NIECE, HER DAUGHTER" I yelled at him before calming myself.