Origins Unkown

chapter 11

"Listen!" Tess aid suddenly.

"What? I don't hear anything." Drake said confused.

"Exactly. Let's go." Tess ran up the stairs and burst through the door. She saw the boys sitting in heaps on the floor.

"Marc!" She yelled. Marc slowly got back to his feet.

"We're fine. Just tired." Marc said attempting to smile. Tess looked him over and saw his hands.

"What is that?" She gasped.

"It's his heart. Acheron has his eyes and Cayden has his brain. They have to be destroyed. Separately. By different means or he could survive." Marc explained softly.

"Do it then." Tess said quickly.

"We can't. We used everything we had. Guess you guys get to have your revenge after all." Marc said laughing a bit.

Cayden and Acheron struggled to their feet.

"What do we need to do boys?' Drake asked coming to Acheron's side.

"I suppose each set of parents could destroy the part of the beast their son has. It shouldn't matter how you do it, just make sure there is nothing left." Marc said quietly.

Drake and Twilight took the eyes from Acheron and stepped back. They each took one in their hands. Twilight covered it in her hands and mumbled a phrase in Greek. She opened her hands and where the eye had been stood a horse figurine. She dropped it to the floor and stomped it into dust, then set it on fire.

Drake opened a hole in the floor and dropped the eye he held into the flowing lava that had risen up from the earth.

Shadow stepped forward and took the brain from Cayden. She got out her favorite knife and sliced it up into tiny pieces. The pieces slowly disintegrated into nothing but some black dust. She set it on fire and called a soft wind to blow the remaining ashes away.

Tess and Rylan took the heart from Marc.

"Please make sure its all destroyed." Marc begged quietly.

"We will, son." Rylan said smiling.

Rylan and Tess stood facing each other with the heart in their hands. Tess smiled because she knew what Rylan wanted to do. They muttered a phrase, together, three times. The heart froze solid, then caught fire. When the flames died down a little, the heart exploded. It rained down like confetti at a birthday party.

"Finish it." Marc gasped.

Cayden threw out his hands and the pieces caught fire and burned with a black flame. When the black flame died out, there was nothing left but a scorch mark on the floor.

Three Days Later

Back at the house the adults worked on healing John, and the boys tried to stay out of the way and recover.

"He's so pale." Shadow whispered.

"Hey, I'm not dead yet. No tears from you." John whispered up to Shadow.

"Oh, my, you're awake. I was so worried. How do you feel?" Shadow asked smiling and wiping a tear from her cheek.

"Tired and hungry." He gasped.

"And hurting?" Roman asked.

"A bit." He said through gritted teeth.

"It's good you can feel the pain. I'll get you something to ease it." Roman said getting up.

"Did we win at least?" John asked, trying to sit up. Rylan and Drake helped him as gently as they could.

"Our boys did wonderfully. They did things we could only dream of doing. It was amazing." Tess said as she beamed with pride.

"Thank goodness. What do we do now? Go back to our separate lives?" John asked looking around the room at the people who had not only saved his life, but had become his family.

"We discussed it. We want to stay here. The boys are inseparable and we've all grown fond of each other. We're a family." Rylan answered with a huge smile.

A great look of relief swept across John's face. "Good, I'm not sure I could go back to living with normal people anyway. Too boring." He said shivering. Everyone laughed.

"Ok, that's enough. John you need to rest. Drink this and sleep a bit. Someone will wake you for dinner." Roman said as he shooed everyone out of the room.

"Roman, I need to talk to you in private for a moment." John said seriously.

"Okay." Roman said as he sat down next to John and waited for the worst.

"I know. I know everything." John said simply.

"Oh. I see. What are you planning to do?" Roman asked looking at his hands.

"Nothing. I just wanted you to know that I know what you were supposed to do. I wanted you to know that I had faith you'd do the right thing in the end." John said with a small smile.

"I didn't have such faith, I must admit. I'm not a strong-willed man. That's how he got to me in the first place." Roman said looking away in shame.

"You have no reason to be ashamed, Roman. You went against the beast knowing at any time he could kill you. That took guts. Don't worry, Roman, I will never tell the others. This is the last time it will ever be spoken of again." John said covering Roman's hands with one of his own.

"Thank you, John. You really should rest." Roman said standing.

"One more thing, Roman." John said quickly before Roman could take a step.

"Yes." Roman said stopping, but not turning.

"If you ever, so much as think about betraying this family again, I will kill you myself." John said seriously.

"I would hope so." Roman answered softly.

John nodded his head and closed his eyes to rest.

Roman sighed and headed to his place of solace, the library.