"Sister?" Damian echoed derisively. "Who said anything about her being my sister?"
Damian's eyebrows creased further with confusion. "What?"
Dimitri peeled off his jacket and hurled it across the room. "Joanne was never my sister. She was never my family. She. Was. My. Wife!"
Damian's eyes went round for a moment. Then slowly, his face contorted into a deep frown and he barked. "You lied, you son of a bitch!"
Dimitri flexed his right hand and Damian felt himself been lifted off the ground. The ashes whirled around him felt like a death cage, trapping him in place.
Dimitri palmed his face, laughing bitterly. "All I wanted was a happy life with my family, with my wife."
In the midst of the whooshing wind, his voice deepened till it eventually became distorted. "Von Burren took everything from me!"
Damian put his hands around his throat, attempting to wriggle free but the wind's invisible hold proved more powerful.
Dimitri went on, "Looking back, Von Burren and I always competed for the right house, the right club, the right girl!"
A deep roar escaped Damian's lips as he maneuvered the wind to his control and slipped out of the tornado.
Damian fell to the floor, catching his breath. "Let me guess Joanne was the right girl you both had your paws on."
"You're right," Dimitri crossed his index finger over the one in his right hand and a myriad of daggers floated behind him. "Joanne was the one we both wanted."
He released the dagger and they sliced through the air, looking for targets.
Damian slid across the room on his knees and jumped behind an unhinged door. "And Von Burren won!"
"No!" Dimitri gave a loud animalistic screech that boomed though the room, shaking the very foundation of the temple.
This made Damian wonder what kind of evil forced possessed Dimitri.
"Joanne was mine!" Dimitri went on, his murderous red eyes scanning the room for Damian. "Joanne was an orphan my father adopted. I loved her and she loved me back. We got married and had our twins - Lucia and Braelyn."
Damian was rendered shocked by the statement. "What?"
Then the realization hit him. Braelynn and Lucia had looked very much alike.
"Surprised, aren't you?" Dimitri caught sight of Damian's leg and aimed his next attack at the door.
The force of the blow sent Damian slamming through the walls and into the next room. Dimitri followed quickly to finish him off.
"If Lucia and Braelyn are children of Joanne Von Burren then what about the Count's older daughters?" Damian struggled to his feet. "Surely, they came from somewhere."
"Don't call her Von Burren! She's mine!" Dimitri screeched and lunged at Damian who dodged the impending attack.
The walls shook violently before falling to the floor in large stony chunks. Dimitri clawed his way out of the rubble, his clothes and faces dusty.
"Von Burren already had a wife before he stole mine. The old countress, the tramp of a woman had the Count's older daughters before she passed away. They were already teenagers when my twins were born." He said.
A trail of blood ran down Damian's lip and he wiped it away quickly. "Von Burren was in need of a mother for his daughters so he came for Joanne."
"Yes. You're smarter than I thought you'd be, Damian," Dimitri lifted his left hand and all the ashes in the atmosphere began to gather at warp speed.
"Von Burren sent your entire household to hell for a woman and you did nothing to stop him! You're more dumber than I thought." Damian retorted sharply, his eyes landing on the object behind Dimitri.
"You son of a bitch!" Dimitri howled with rage.
The ashes building in the atmosphere became solidified like a comet.
"Death was what you wanted and death, you will have!" Dimitri yelled, hurling the giant rock towards him.
****
There was a lingering feeling of fear in the Canterbury air.
Colette shivered slightly as she watched the wind blow into the room, nearly putting off the candle. The windows were locked and the curtains drawn. She knew the wind was not coming from outside but from Lucia. Her immobile form was floating above the bed.
"I - I see him. I see Damian." Lucia kept whispering.
Colette took another look at the charcoal drawing of Damian and Dimitri.
She doesn't have to know, she thought. Then she crumpled the paper in her fist, throwing it into the fireplace.
"Colette, he's hurt." Lucia cried out in pain.
Colette scrambled for her book of spells. "Call to him. Now!"
"Damian! Damian, can you hear me!?" Lucia called out.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Damian was fighting for his life. His body was broken and bleeding, his life hanging on a loose thread Dimitri played with.
"Damian!" A shrill female voice echoed beneath him.
He looked down and found nothing.
"Damian, come home!" The voice came again.
"Who's there?" He clutched his bleeding stomach.
"It's me, Lucia. Look ahead. I'm waiting for you!"
Damian trailed his eyes forward and indeed, she was. Her red hair cascaded down her shoulders and her white gown floated at the hem.
"Damian, come home!" She said, stretching her hand towards him.
"You're not going anywhere, Damian!" Dimitri shrieked behind him.
The temple rattled and the pillars began to break. The ceiling gave out and the water fountain cracked, releasing the dark waters.
"Alas, the heavens are finally enraged!" Dimitri gave a maniacal laugh, lifting both his hands in midair.
"Get out of the way, D -" Before Dmaina could complete his sentence, a boulder fell through the ceiling, burying him in the ground.
"Shit!" Damian crawled backwards, his teeth gritted.
"Damian!" He heard the cry again and turned around.
Lucia was standing behind him with her arms open. "Come home to me! Please!"
He refused to believe that she was the one but a part of him believed she was.
The ground gave out and he slipped. His hands reached out to a rock, holding on tightly his palm bled.
"Damian, come on. I can't let you die." Lucia called out again.
Other voices began to deep into his mind.
"It's a trap. Don't go."
"Listen to her. She's the real Lucia."
"You'll die here, Damian."
"Go with her!"
"Aargh! Enough!" He hurled himself into the air and landed back in the room.
"Damian." Lucia called out to him, her arms still wide open.
"Lucia." He threw all resolve and ran towards her, falling into her embrace.
The next thing Colette saw startled her. Lucia fell back on the bed but she was not alone. There was a man with her.
"Damian!" Lucia awoke with a gasp.
"He's right there." Colette pointed at her and she looked down.
"Damian," Lucia whispered, running her hand through his hair.
His eyes eyelids fluttered open and when they met hers, he gave a tired smile, burying himself further in the arms of his beloved.