Chapter 18
Ryan McFlame ~
"My master needs you alive and going if not, I would have loved to make bird soup out of you." The lycan added walking up to me.
"In your dreams!" I said making a ball of fire in my hands and threw it at him while my bruise healed.
"Don't waste your strength." he said dodging the fireball. "Cassius is getting your abilities. The sooner you and they all accept that, the quicker we can get out of this coven." he added raising me up with both hands by the neck.
"Not on my watch!!!" stormed Frederick running the lycan through with his sword by the chest. "I told you to get off the back of the Royal family! You should have listened! You should have never came near Alessia!!!" he added taking the sword deeper into his chest.
"Caaassiuus!!!" screeched the lycan before falling flat on the ground with blood gushing out of his chest.
Frederick Claw ~
"Are you alright?" I asked Ryan lifting him up from the ground.
"I'm fine but I can't say same for this coven." Ryan said as he scanned his eyes all around the fight that was going on. Frederick, I and my brothers have to leave this place. That's the only way that Cassius won't rip this place apart." he added picking up a silver spear and threw it towards a lycan.
"It hurts me to say this but you're right! The being superseding all this won't stop until he gets what he came here for and there's no way that we can take him down if we can see or touch him as a result of the fact that he disappears and appears at will." I replied using vampyric speed to kill two lycans that were approaching Ryan from behind. "I know one thing for sure."
"What's that?"
"As long as you all are in this world, Cassius wouldn't stop until he has all the powers of the phoenixes in him." I said.
"It's cleaver to seek victory but extremely foolish to run away! Three to go!!!" I heard Cassius say as he appeared and in an instance, drained another phoenix of his power making his remains fall to a pile of ashes.
"Et nunc mandatum quod acedia" Morgana said and a green colored smoke fell upon us all. "Ambulabunt mecum in tempore" Morgana said as she walked up to Ryan and Frederick and held both of their hands freeing them from the effects of the spell she had just cast."
"What did you do?" I asked Morgana when I observed that everyone and everything were on a standstill.
It was as if time suddenly came to a halt. It was after some time that I realized that the curse was not to stop the flow of time but to make time as slow as it can get.
"The spell won't last for long." Morgana started. "Frederick, if Cassius gets all the powers of the phoenixes, there is no telling how much more power he would possess. My magic can only save one and even if I were to unite with Alessia, we still won't have enough energy to save two of them say more of all three." She added before falling hopelessly to the ground.
"What's happening to you?" Ryan said helping Morgana up from the ground.
"It's the spell. It's taking energy from me and it is making me age drastically but never mind that. I can't hold the spell for much longer." Morgana said as the pupils in her eyes that we in a green shade blinked. "I'm going to send you somewhere safer than here."
"Arrggh!!!" she howled in pain.
"Stop the spell." Ryan and I urged her to end the spell. "If you go any longer, you'll die!" I said as her ear-piercing screams continued.
Morgana was putting a lot on the line by holding up a spell so powerful and demanding. Her screams persisted and slowly, time got into a much faster motion. In other words, the spell was breaking.
One by one, everyone broke free of the weakened spell.
"If I don't do this, they'll all die." she replied making her hands go in circles. "Find Queen Sofia and the trybrid child." Those were her final words before leading Ryan into a magic portal.
As Ryan walked through, Morgana fell down to the ground. Her hair had gone entirely white and her skin had become as wrinkled as it could get.
Her youth was gone.
She laid on the ground almost lifeless.
"Nooohhh!!!" yelled Cassius using his supernatural speed to knock me down. "I'm going to make you ever regret being a witch!" he said as he picked up Morgana and enveloped her in what seemed to be a giant magical orb.
Cassius was roaring at the top of his voice and I could feel the vibrations that it was giving to the coven. If he continued doing that, the walls might end up collapsing. All the lycans, who had come with him stopped fighting and went down on one knee towards him. The remaining brothers of Ryan were drained off their abilities in a flash when the orb shot out at them.
Suddenly, the entire room was surrounded by heavy wind.
"I underestimated you all once. Mark my words, I would never make such an error again." Those were the last words heard before the orb went into an outburst of energy.
************
I woke up about 10 hours later. The entire coven was in a mess. Slowly, the other vampyres awoke. I hurried to meet Alessia.
"He is gone!" I said to her. "Cassius is gone and all those who came with him."
"… wait, what about Ryan and…" I cut Alessia short.
"Morgana was able to save Ryan alone but the others were lost." I said with a gloom.
"It seems our dear Cassius is worse than we thought." I heard Liam say squatting over a pile of ash. "At least now we know who the enemy is for sure. Thomas or the present day Cassius Rein." he added.
"She's gone! Cassius destroyed her as well!" I said pushing my fist against the ground in anger and pain.
I warned her but she didn't listen. How on earth are we going to bring Elena back when the time comes if the only person that can do it is dead? This was only the beginning and I knew it. In a matter of hours, Cassius has taken more than I can say from me.
My wife, my coven, my niece and now, my friends.
Whatever happened, the Thomas that I knew is gone. This being under his flesh isn't the human I helped and turned centuries ago. This has to be a demon sent from Hades himself and even more.
"Goodbye Morgana!" I said as a tear rolled down my eye. "Your sacrifice will never be forgotten." I added wiping off the tear as it made its way down my cheek.
We all searched the gigantic space occupied by the control room for any surviving lycan and even the slain ones but it was of no use.
They were all gone with the wind.
All we have to ourselves is the preparation for a battle that just came knocking at the door.
Cassius would surely pay for his sins.