But, of course, all good things have to come to an end eventually, and I knew the moment that it did.
I had just finished my breakfast and was now in the main entrance with Veren, on our way to the study for my daily study session, when a man burst through the doorway.
He looked rough, his dark clothes torn and stained in a way that obviously wasn't a fashion statement. He had scratches on his arms, abdomen, and face and his dark skin looked unnaturally pale.
"Caite!" Veren called out yet another foreign name, then ran to the man's side.
I followed Veren, to stand at the side of the bleeding man, as Ternia stepped into the room with inhuman speed.
"Caite, what happened?" Veren asked, helping the man to stay on his feet.
"A demon...in the forest..." the man, Caite, gasped, and a chill filled the air.
All of the dragon clan members that were around had fallen instantly silent, watching as Caite, Veren, and Ternia gave each other a concerned look.
"What did the demon look like?" I forced myself to ask, though I already knew the answer.
"A...young woman...long hair...black eyes...pale skin..."
Katrina was young with long hair, but she had never been what I would have described as pale. And the black eyes were a new thing for me to think of on her. But I was sure that he had just described my sister. Since she had found her way here, it meant that any humanity within her was long gone. She was no longer my sister, but now a full fledged demon.
"Where is she now?" Ternia asked, her voice stiff as she looked up at me.
She didn't need the link to know what I was sure of. She could probably feel my fear just by looking at me.
"I'm...not sure...the demon...she killed everyone...i just barely got away..." Caite stammered, tears in his eyes.
"She's right here!" A cold, inhuman voice spoke from just outside the front door.
The doors were ripped off of the hinges by an invisible wind, and thrown somewhere outside, and there stood Kat.
Her skin was a sickly white-gray color, with black veins just visible underneath, and her hair, which normally looked amazing, looked long and dead, hanging lifeless over her shoulders. She still had the clothes that she had been wearing on the day I had come to Amaranth. But they were singed and cut. Her jeans that had once fit with the beautiful peach blouse, now looking like she had just escaped a burning building, but the skin underneath just looking like she was the living dead.
"Rae, how could you just leave me like that?" She asked, her voice cooing as if she actually cared about me.
My whole body felt frozen, looking directly at her, finally seeing everything that she had spent the past 17 years hiding from me. She wasn't human at all. She never had been. Her father, he hadn't been Jacey's dad. He had been a demon. Not a demon corrupted human, a full blooded demon, that had simply lost his powers and had been living among the humans. He had probably just been doing his best to survive in a magic-less world, when my mom came into his life. She probably hadn't even known that he was a demon, since she didn't destroy him immediately, instead having a child with him. But, my mom had never lied about believe that Kat and Jacey shared dad's, so it might have just been a fling or one-night-stand type thing.
"You know, it took me so long to figure out how to find you. It really hurt, knowing that my baby sister was so far away. You wouldn't even help me get that precious crystal that my dad told me about. Don't you understand how important it was to me?" She said, her voice scratching and deepening.
Every instinct inside of me screamed for me to run, that I needed to get away, to get somewhere safe. But I couldn't move.
I felt arms wrap around my back and pulling me further into the mansion, as Ternia moved to stand in front of me. I didn't have to turn to know that it was Veren pulling me, but I couldn't bring myself to react.
"You are not welcome her, Demon!" Ternia declared, her voice booming with power and echoing throughout the room.
"She's not your sister" I heard Veren whispering in my ear "not anymore."
Tears burned my eyes, then slid down my cheek, as my senses began to return to me. The fire that would light up in my gut whenever Veren touched me suddenly felt like a massive burning building, heat coursing through my entire body, power burning me as it filled me to the very core.
Finally, feeling some sense of control, I turned to face him, ignoring as Kat let out an animalistic, angry scream, and I pushed myself into him, kissing him hard. I knew that the fight wouldn't be easy, and I wanted him to know, without any chance of doubt, exactly how I felt about him. Even if part of me knew that my death would also mean his death.
Time seemed to stop for just a moment, and I knew that he was staring at me.
"I won't die" I said, as if trying to reassure the both of us, then turned away from him.
"Rae?" I heard him call my name, softly, as I ran away from him, past Ternia who gasped my name.
I heard everyone either calling after me or starting to run as well, but I couldn't give them any attention. I put all of the force of my will into slamming into the Demon that had once been my sister, hearing the pained grunt as my arm slammed into her gut. But that didn't stop me, as I pushed her several feet backwards, until her feet dug into the dirt path and forced us to a stop.
"That...hurt..." She said between gasping breaths.
"Good" I panted, visualizing a blade forming in my hand.
I jumped back with a level of speed and strength that I had never felt before, and faced her.
My chest burned from the strain and from the fire in the pit of my stomach, and the energy burned through my fingertips, as the blade shaped itself into a beautiful, black, 7 inch long, wavy dagger.
Kat looked at the dagger in my hand and it felt like the air was thinning and turning to frost, as she let out a horrible, scratchy-voiced hiss.
"You plan to fight me?!" She screamed, her voice distorting from a low pitch, to a high pitch, and back again.
Her hands shook at her hips, her body trembling as she began to radiate pure darkness.
I heard the gasps and cries of people behind me, but I couldn't look at them. I couldn't take my eyes off of her. If I had learned anything from my family, it was that you never turned your back on an enemy. Not until they were completely destroyed.
"I plan to do more than just that" I spat at her, moving with more of my unnatural speed, and threw the dagger square into her chest.
She screamed again, this one sounding filled with such pain, and so loud that I could feel blood starting to pour from my ears.
Something slammed into my gut, an unseen force pushing into me.
"You little brat. I'll kill you!!!!" Kat screeched.
I forced a painful smile at her, then said "Good luck with that."
I extended my hand forward, aiming it at the dagger still in her chest, ignoring the pain as she walked toward me, slowly.
I didn't understand why she would move slowly, since she probably still had plenty of power fueling her, but I wasn't going to complain. Instead, I focused all of the heat and power within me, forming a bond to the dagger that was lodged in her chest, and willing the metal to expand, shattering and spreading within her body.
I stared as she screamed again, pain echoing around the entire area, and fell to her knees.
"I'll...ki...ll...y-" she struggled to say, just as Veren appeared behind her.
I watched as his fingers extended into claws and tore into the flesh of her throat.
Her body crumbled, her skin blackening and falling apart like old charcoal. Her blood was staining the ground quicker than it could evaporate into a foul mist.
Strong winds blew from all around me, dispersing the mist up into the sky.
I hadn't even seen him move, but Veren was immediately at my side, catching me as my legs finally gave out, leaving me grasping onto him, watching the remains of my sister fading as if she hadn't existed. Leaving only a large, black stain in the soil.
I heard cheering in the distance, but I couldn't feel such relief. My body felt numb, drained, and cold. I was just too tired, and felt such a pain in my gut that everything within me began to go dark.