Magic of the Night (Harry Potter/Twilight Crossover)

Epilogue:

EPILOGUE:

Corin gasped, her eyes springing open. She wasn't sure where she was, and a movement to her right had her lunging to a crouch, a warning hiss escaping through her now barred teeth.

"Calm down," a familiar voice ordered, and Corin slowly moved out of her crouch.

"My Lady?" she asked, feeling even more confused. Lady Athenodora looked stranger then Corin had ever seen her before, her long black hair fallen from its elaborate braiding, and her white gown stained with dried blood.

They were in a bedroom, in a house– a large one– and Corin could detect the scent of recently deceased humans, on the floor above them.

Why weren't they in the castle? Corin wondered, bewildered, before gasping in horror as she remembered– smoke and fire and screaming and death. Death at the hands of mortal men with strange sticks. A whimper escaped her and she looked up at Lady Athenodora, distraught.

"Next time don't swallow their blood; they have potions that make it poison to us." The Lady said coldly. Corin didn't understand, though she shuddered at the reminder of the awful burning pain. She anxiously looked around the richly furnished bedroom. A sniff told her there were two other vampires present, but she couldn't tell who they were, if they were Master Aro and Master Caius.

"My Lady– did the Masters escape the castle?" She asked hopefully. Lady Athenodora's beautiful face went dark with sudden anger and grief.

"My mate is dead," she snarled, and Corin flinched back at the terrifying sound. "Those filthy witches killed Caius!" Corin whimpered, her head bowed before her Lady's rage, but she still had to know, she still had to hope–

"Is-Is Master Aro safe?"

"Dead." Lady Athenodora said, coldly, and something in Corin broke.

She screamed in rage and horror and grief. She teared at her hair, she ripped the furniture apart. Her mind cracked, and her psyche turned into sharp shards of glass, cutting everything in reach.

Finally, she crouched to the floor, rocking back and forth and sobbing tearlessly, her nails scrabbling at the floorboards, ripping through the wood, unable to stop the distressed wails that escaped her, anguish and heartache drowning her. Master Aro was dead! He was dead! Her savior, her Master, her dearest, dearest loved one! He couldn't– he just couldn't be dead! How? Why? Why?!

"Corin!" Lady Athenodora's sharp voice broke through Corin's dizzying haze of grief, and she looked up at her mistress. At some point, Alec had entered the now half-destroyed room, and Corin vaguely recalled that he and Heidi had been away from the castle during the attack. If he was here, then Heidi was likely the other vampire Corin could sense present in the house.

"I– I'm sorry, my Lady," she managed to pull herself together, the best as she could, and in a smooth movement rose back to her feet. It took time for Corin to piece the shattered pieces herself back together enough that the bone-deep, aching sorrow wouldn't crack them back apart, but, surprisingly, Lady Athenodora waited. "I– I don't remember– we escaped?" she asked, finally. The Lady's lips drew back in a silent snarl, and there was a cold hatred in her beautiful blood-red eyes, the slight film from age like a sheen of glimmering pearl over ruby. Corin trembled, but the hatred was not aimed towards her.

"Wizards!" The ancient vampiress spat, as though the word itself was filthy. "Mages! Sorcerers! Witches!"

"They're real? They exist?" Corin felt dizzy, like too much was happening too fast.

"They are our greatest enemy," Lady Athenodora said, with a dark fury. "The Volturi have been spared their attention for over a thousand years, as we have kept the other vampires in line. Until now. Until this Isabella Swan."

Corin let out a hiss at the name, remembering one of the mortals– wizards– saying it.

"You said that the wizards said her name," Lady Athenodora directs her words towards Corin, and the smaller vampire nods.

"Yes, my Lady. One of them said to M-Master A-Aro that the coven had attacked her, and that our lives were forfeit because of that."

"Alec told me about her while you were still suffering under the effect of the witch blood– about how she is mated to one of the Cullens, vampires who play at being human, abstaining from our natural diet out of disgusting righteousness." Lady Athenodora's red eyes glittered with menace, "they will pay. They will all pay for what they have just brought down on our species."

"What?" Alec's voice is low, and Corin shudders on reflex at the tone. "What is going to happen?"

"What was promised to us, should the Volturi ever go against the rules the wizards set us and fail to keep our kind in line," the Lady said, coldly. "The total extermination of our race."

Corin's startled hiss was drowned out by Alec's fierce growl. "Can we fight them?" he demanded. Corin couldn't imagine being able to fight the sort of overwhelming power that had befallen the castle, but Lady Athenodora smiled, a cold, cold smile.

"Of course. Our success is far from guaranteed, but we will not go quietly. We shall need to gather allies, strong ones, but they will flock to us when covens start to be decimated."

"And the Olympic coven?" Alec pressed. "What will be done about the Cullens?"

"Well," Lady Athenodora's smile was pure poison. "When Jane returns with her report on how they fared against the newborn army set upon them, we shall make our plans for them. But one way or another, the Cullens will all die– and their pet witch will burn with them."

A/N: I said once that this would be the last book in the Moonspell series, and it was supposed to be- but then I ended up without my phone, internet or computer for two days and wrote out a full plan for a Moonspell version of Breaking Dawn, so there's going to be a Book Four. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed Magic of the Night because I had a lot of fun writing it! Thank you everyone for the wonderful comments, helpful feedback, votes and support~ Cheshire Carroll