Reckless Abandon - The Secrets of Avelina Chronicles 2

29: Aleister

Knox took Aleister down to the dungeons the moment he and his father arrived back at the Croiset clan house they called home. He hadn't yet heard the news of Edward's recovery or the whispers going around the house. It seemed that Lavinia was only taking care of Edward because she loved him and had ever since before he had left to rule the Island. She was now guarding her second chance to unite with him, by nursing him back to health. Knox had no care for Lavinia's love interests, though he would have rejoiced to hear Edward was alive and recovering from his possession by Walter. His only thought was to see Aleister and Reinhart punished for the way they had turned against their own people and put them in danger. The threat of war from the humans still loomed over their heads and he was concerned. Would it reach them before his father had time to explain the truth of the matter?

Knox chained Aleister to the wall, a few feet away from Reinhart so that the two could keep each other company in their final hours. He left the dungeons and returned to wait for his father in the council room. He was surprised to see the newly turned recruits Reinhart had gathered and how great their numbers were in just the short time of the attacks. It was a little strange talking to people he had performed autopsies on. Knox started getting to know the boys stories to find out about them in a way that he hoped would help his father decide their fate. Meanwhile, Reinhart and Aleister were arguing.

"You betrayed me, you sick old man. You are unworthy of the position of power I granted you." Aleister began angrily, stretching his chains as far as he could, trying to reach out to strangle Reinhart for the pure pleasure of hurting him. But he couldn't reach. He was short almost an entire foot and it infuriated him to know that he was so close and yet unable to get revenge.

"Yeah well, a lot of good it did you, eh? You were never going to get any power." Reinhart laughed at him. Aleister became almost crazy with loathing for the one man he had trusted with his secret plan. He had almost gotten away with it.

"In a few more weeks, I would have had a big enough army to overthrow Damian. I would have been a big enough threat to get the rest of the clan on my side." He raged in fury. But, it was no good. Reinhart was still in fairly poor condition after the torture Don had put him through. He was sure he had felt a nail piercing through the back of his right ear, the one closest to Aleister.

"No good. Can't hear you." He grumbled, uninterested in knowing what he was saying any way.

He managed to drown him out by humming, happily, to himself, awaiting the moment when he would finally see the mysterious orb that would kill him. He had heard of it before, being used in the grand old dark ages, but no-one had used it for centuries. Except the only account he knew of an overzealous Master dishing out punishment. He had heard the rumors that a young college vampire had turned someone he shouldn't have. He had been subjected to death by 'the orb' almost fifty years ago by the elder and then Master of the Kerensky clan, Cezar.

"Crazy old man." Aleister muttered to himself, as Reinhart tried to remember how many orb's existed in the vampire world and just what they did. He was sure there was only one and yet he wondered if there could be more, since Cezar had it fifty years ago and now Damian had one too. Or maybe it was the same one? That thought occupied him for a long while, until he heard a quiet pop and a sort of twirling noise of something opening.

And right before his eyes, Reinhart saw a small tube rising from the floor and opening into a water lily shape. Aleister panicked as the small petals opened out and expanded to show a small crystal where he thought a tube was. It really was beautiful and for a moment all Reinhart did was gaze in awe. He was grateful to Damian, who had allowed Lavinia to cure his swollen eye and pop his eyeball into his socket again so that he could witness the wonderful sight before him.

Aleister didn't feel the same wonder and beauty that Reinhart did, but he didn't have much time to feel anything. Once the eight triangular petals had opened up, there was the mechanical sound of the shutters going up, to let the sunlight into the room. Reinhart instantly felt the glorious heat on his skin, closing his eyes to the feeling as he basked in the warmth and sunshine. He felt no pain as the sunshine fell across the crystal, only warmth and a feeling of surrender to the unusual, yet magical experience. He heard nothing, except the quiet sprinkling of sunshine over metal, a sparkling sound of sunlight reflecting off crystal and silence. He was granted the gift of a painless death, thanks to Damian's gifts. It was nothing more than a last farewell and reward for his courage to face death head on.

Reinhart didn't hear the clink of the crystal reaching its full height within the petals. Nor Aleister's screams as the sunlight hit the crystal and multiplied to over ten times its normal strength, focusing the beams into a weapon as dangerous as a laser. It hit him first in the chest, creating a thin line of burning flesh and magnetized until it consumed his entire body. In less than a minute, Reinhart drifted off into a peaceful death after witnessing what he considered a miracle. Meanwhile, Aleister burned and vanished with screams of terror. Two seconds later, there was nothing left of either of them.