The Dragon's Cure - Shaun

Chapter 60

With her eyes closed, Shaun could not tell if Amanda had caste a spell or readied herself to do one, though he never felt her magic activate like before. When he glanced at Catherine, her wild eyes and stiff posture told him that she had other plans than to sit and wait for her memory to be wiped away.

The couch creaked as Catherine pushed up and flung herself at Amanda. As though she had been waiting for that exact moment, electricity blasted from Amanda's hands as she pushed it forward, against Catherine's chest.

Catherine stumbled back, holding onto her chest and gasping for air and then dropped to her knees, before keeling over and crashing, face first into the small glass coffee table. Shaun hissed as glass shattered and shot into every direction, just barely missing Amanda's legs.

He ran over and kneeled in front of her to make sure she did not have glass pieces stuck in her legs or gotten nicked by the flying shards. She smiled down sadly and shook her head.

"I had a shield around me, so I'm fine. I couldn't kill her without probable cause, so I used the ruse of wiping her memory to get her to try and stop me. It worked better than I thought it would. We should probably take her somewhere," Amanda said pointing at Catherine.

"I would have suggested leaving her hear with the door open, but too many people saw us with her and I do not want Blighton Central or any other agency knocking on our door before we had a chance to leave. We can drop her off at a hospital and then head back home. Luke and the others are probably already there," Shaun said.

He raised Catherine into his arms and laid her on the back seat, before running back to Amanda. She waved her hands to fix the table and then walked around from room to room running her fingers over every surface as though to memorize its feel or to say goodbye. When she came out of her bedroom, Shaun pushed away from the wall and held his hand out to her.

"I found this in one of my drawers." Amanda walked up to him while slipping a tiny golden ring onto her necklace. "Melinda bought us each one. This one," She held out her hand to show a second gold ring. "belonged to me and I would like to give it to Mandy. If she accepts it, she has to make a promise to remain pure until the day of her wedding. I thought that would ease your mind a bit," She said smiling up at him.

"Placing her in a glass box until her wedding day is the only thing that will ease my mind, but since she is not sleeping beauty, fast asleep until her prince charming arrives, I will go with the ring and hope she does not fall into the clutches-"

"Do you really think I will allow any of them to touch our daughter? Just because I did not give birth to her, does not mean that I care less for her than I do those three little angels. She is our next leader and she needs to be protected. Even if that means I have to kill them all," Amanda said.

"I doubt it will come to that, but I'm glad you are open to it, because if they try to touch any of you, I will release the beast. The last time I did that, Luke had me in a coma for three straight days. Apparently, I almost killed one of the elders. I have no idea who or why, but Luke had to knock me out to stop me.

"He's not all braun as he pretends to be. He has plenty tricks up his sleeve," Shaun said and then chuckled as he shook his head. "One touch can put the biggest and baddest to sleep. While we were at school, he would try to get out of doing his chores, so I bargained with him. He writes all my essays and I'll do his chores. He copied my handwriting perfectly. No one could tell the difference." He shook his head and curled Amanda's fingers over the tiny ring in her palm. "You should be the one to give it to her. I'll just come across as the over protective father and like you said, I'll lose the trust of my princess."

Amanda kissed his cheek and then pointed at the door. The keypad beeped as she entered the code and then the door clicked closed as though signaling it's final farewell. Instead of turning towards the car she headed to Joel at the security station. Shaun let her go, thinking she needed the time to say goodbye and slowly drove the car around the block to meet her at the gate.

A glint caught his eyes from one of the windows and when he turned to look back, his mother stood near a wall, surrounded by a white smoke. He stopped the car two houses down and ran back to her.

His mother pointed at the back of the house and said, "You have one last task. Amanda can hear us. She will be here soon. Go through the back and stay silent. Oh, you might want to hold your breath. By the look of things, it might be best to hold your breath for a while. I'll be here to tell Amanda what to do. Try to remain calm. She will not be in any danger. Trust in her and her abilities."

He shivered as she trailed her fingers over his cheek. For the first time he could almost feel her cold skin against his, as though this was her final goodbye.

"I will." He nodded his head and smiled. "I love you, Mom. Always."

"I will see you again, silly boy. Just not here," she said and waved her hand as though to chase him on.

He snuck around the back and peeked through the windows, but with them painted over, he could only see shadows. Unlike Amanda's condo, this one had a white door at the back, so he crept closer and pushed his ear against it. Muffled voices could be heard and as he reached for the door nob, the bell rang at the front door.