"You think flowers are going to keep me back!" Kai mockingly derided his older brother, and Chester narrowed his eyes at him for the insult.
Did he not see they were vines?
"You've lost your mind!" Chester snarled at his little brother.
One hand at a time, Kai yanked his wrists free by pulling harder so that the vines snapped apart. Swift in his hand motions like a wolverine, his claws cut the rest of the vines off his neck. Then he slashed through the ones on his ankles. His red scary eyes scanned between his family and their clan members who were foolishly protecting what he sought. He stepped forward as his eyes were fixated on the stretcher Larry laid on.
Before he could get too close, Chester contorted his fingers as his mind fully focused on using his second gift. Underneath the epoxy floor, thick vines lifted through the white and black marble swirling design. On the sides of Kai's shoes, vines snaked up and around his legs before snatching his knees in a tight squeeze. High from the ceiling, three more vines dropped down and wrapped a noose around his neck. On the opposite sides of the plastered walls, five vines cracked through and coiled around Kai's wrists to seize him again.
"You were told to back off!" Chester growled maliciously at him.
Kai snorted like a lion. "Not until I tear Larry into pieces!"
Like a cat shredding a roll of toilet paper, he tore free from the vines on his wrists, and then his claws cut through the other vines around his legs and neck.
In a straight row across each side of the opposite walls, Chester grew a wall of vines that reached above Kai's head to shield him from coming any closer to them. As Kai's swinging claws would chop down the vines, Chester would break more vines through the floor to block him from crossing.
"This is getting ridiculous!" Kai yelled.
Fed up with prolonging this any longer, he quickly sliced through six vines and burst through with his right hand up when he unleashed his second gift on his older brother.
"Kai, no!" Zoey screamed when Chester collapsed to his knees just before he shot several more vines from the ceiling, floor, and walls to wrap Kai's entire body into a cocoon.
As Kai added more painful pressure to his gift, Chester gnashed his teeth as he merely coiled his fingers for the vines to squeeze Kai's body like he was being devoured by a large snake. But Kai was stealthy to break through those vines with his claws, and then he hit his brother twice as hard with his gift once he landed his feet on the uneven and broken floor.
In grave pain, Chester gritted his teeth together. Unable to endure it any longer, he dropped on all fours, and Zoey wrapped her arms around his back and held his chest as she screamed. "Stop this, Kai!"
Back and forth, Mr. Collin kept shifting his eyes everywhere as his museum was starting to look like a jungle. Having had enough of it, Mr. Collin raised his hand to unleash his second gift on Kai, which was burning anybody's skin with acid.
But before he had a chance to strike his youngest son.
His daughter, Veronica, bounced in on Kai's right as she yelled. "Kai, stop it! This isn't you!"
Hearing her voice, Kai released Chester as Mr. Collin was now worried for his daughter since she was barely two arm's lengths away from Kai. He could easily snatch her if he chose to, and that thought alone had Mr. Collin on the edge.
"Then let me have Larry," Kai hissed, but this time, he didn't take any more steps.
Back from behind him, Mrs. Collin's sweet voice trailed up the corridor, "Larry isn't the blame."
Kai let down his guard when he turned around to see his beautiful mother. Her classy red dress fitted flawlessly on every curve and over her pregnant belly. With elegance in each step, Mrs. Collin's high heels clanked on the floor as she strode along the corridor with such confidence to her unruly son. The way her red curly hair bounced with her stride enchanted a fetching pulchritudinous to her attractiveness.
As she walked, Chester had his vines withdrawn between the damaged floor, so his mother wouldn't trip. Even though the floor was uneven and cracked apart like the walls, Mrs. Collin still walked over it without a stumble in her gracefulness as a queen.
"Then who can I blame, myself?" Kai's voice croaked when he started to break down.
As Mrs. Collin neared him, she carefully strides to his face. With her doing this, Mr. Collin was on full alert to protect her from their son since she was pregnant with his next offspring.
"Of course not." Mrs. Collin responded sweetly as she stretched her hand out and touched his disfigured face. "This was nobody's fault."
"Victoria's going to die because I can't find her!" Kai broke down as his beastly form started to wither. He slowly turned back into his irresistible form that would have the vampiresses and the ladies wanting to leap into his arms.
His mother hugged him as she whispered. "You mustn't give up on her, but you can cry if you need to. Then you must collect yourself and save your wife and offspring."
No matter how old Kai is or how tall he grew compared to her, he was her baby no matter what. After all, he was the youngest for a long time until recently. While Mrs. Collin had him preoccupied in her arms, from behind his back, she waved her hand to signal Zoey so she could get Larry out of there. With her hands rapidly flicking to move him, Zoey quickly had Chester's four guardians lift the stretcher, and then they disappeared with Larry as she went with them as well.
"I won't cry," Kai replied, hugging his mother as if his life depended on it. She was the only thing that soothed him right now. He took in all her love just like he did when he was little. In his wrath, he would've mangled his older brother or any other male in his family, but he'd never dare touch any of the vampiresses in his Coven, especially his mother. Kai never had any intention of harming Zoey. Honestly, he was only going to move her out of his way since her stubbornness was greater than her fear.
Mrs. Collin didn't stop hugging Kai until he was ready to release her. Once he was, he veered around and saw that Larry was out of his reach, but he no longer cared to kill him.
"I need to be alone," Kai fretted before he fled from their sight.
Which now left Mr. Collin and Chester with an angry Mrs. Collin glaring at them as if she was indicating that this was their fault.