-1To End All

A shriek escaped her lips but it was the force of her weight hitting him that was most distracting. To her it felt almost like hitting a wall of concrete, like flinging yourself at a statue, it hurt but she grabbed him around the waist forcing him to stand holding her weight as gravity pulled her limp body to the floor. If only she'd weighed a little more perhaps she could have knocked him off balance, as it was he merely stumbled but the effect had been distracting enough. The power that had made his fingers glow had leeched away, his irritation however had not.

He turned, rage contorting the ordinarily handsome features of his pale face, and glowered down at Rayne where she fought to pull herself up from the crumpled heap she'd landed in upon the floor. "Damn you girl!" He spat, raising his hand again only this time he whipped it through the air and landed a backhanded strike against Rayne's face. "Why do you keep insisting on making this more difficult."

Rayne gasped as he struck her, the force of it knocking her back to the floor. She braced her hands against the cold stone to stop herself from collapsing against it. She tasted blood, a warm trickle telling her that it was beginning to run freely down her chin but she did not move to wipe it away. Holding back a grimace Rayne forced herself back to her knees but kept her eyes cast carefully at the floor. From glimpsing his feet she saw that Draco had backed away as far as he could now that her fathers attention was focused back onto Rayne.

"You know our people Rayne, you should know better than many what must happen, why this must happen." He spoke sternly down to her, pacing in a slow circle. "You're a demon Rayne, why is this suddenly such a difficult concept for you to grasp?"

Rayne sneered, glancing up through a web of black hair. "I've changed." She muttered darkly.

A burst of harsh laughter escaped his mouth at her words. "You don't say." He said softly coming to a halt directly before her. Leaning forwards he grasped Rayne's chin tightly in one hand and gently raised her eyes to meet his. "Too bad nothing else can change." He hissed in a deadly whisper. In a swirl of hair and cloak he whipped around, power glowing in his curled fingers once again, and faced a suddenly wide-eyed Draco. Guess it was too much to ask for that he'd been forgotten about.

"NO!" Rayne yelled reaching out and grabbing his hand, the glowing power crawled unpleasantly beneath her fingers before it once again dissipated. This movement served her two purposes; one it again distracted him delaying Draco's death for yet another few moments. And two, Rayne used his hand to haul herself to her feet and rush forwards and stand in front of Draco again, using herself as a living shield not fearing for herself. They wanted her dead anyway what more was there for her to fear? If she could only save Draco.

"My patience is not endless Rayne and right now you are stretching it very thin." He said in a harsh, deadly whisper. His face contorted with fury.

The silence down in the dungeon suddenly seemed thick with tension, so thick that it was almost too difficult to breathe through. Rayne swallowed hard and shook her head. The blood on her chin had begun to thicken and dry but it still flowed freely into her mouth, coating her teeth and tongue in a film of red. Her long, usually sleek jet hair had become a tangled mass that fell in front of her face and marred her vision but she would not move it away. The fragmented pictures of what she was seeing were almost a comfort, as if not seeing clearly was somehow giving her more courage. Or perhaps she just simply couldn't stand to see the expression on Draco's face.

"I can't…" She began, her breath coming in short gasps. Shaking her head again Rayne forced herself to continue, fighting herself to let the words spill out of her mouth. "I won't let you do this. You don't…This doesn't need to happen." Her gasps struggled to turn to sobs with each short sentence, but Rayne fought them back, must not cry must not cry. "He has no part in this. You have what you came for lets end this now, just leave Draco alone." The word please stopped on her lips, no pleading was not a good idea it was too close to begging and too much of a show of weakness on her part could make things fall apart more quickly than anything.

"You will not let us do this?" He asked, his tone vaguely amused as he raised dark eyebrows in questioning. "Rayne tell me this, what is to stop us from simply killing him once you are gone? How would you ever know?"

"Because you are right. I do know better than many what we, demons, are like. We may be considered to be evil and cruel, but we are creatures of our words. If you gave me your word that Draco would not be harmed I know that it would be the truth." Rayne hissed back.

"And give me one reason why I should give you my word that this boy will not be harmed?" He questioned, his tone if anything still more amused than it had been before. "What would you offer me Rayne? You have nothing to offer, we already want you life what more can you give in exchange for this boy?"

Damn. This time he had a point. She knew that if she could only get his word that Draco would not be harmed then she could die with some sense of peace, but why should he give her his word. She had very few options at her disposal and nothing to offer in a trade. Only one idea came to her mind and to say that it was a long shot was a serious understatement.

"I…I don't know." She said a little dismally, shrugging her shoulders but venturing to look upwards and meet his gaze. "You're right I have nothing to offer in exchange. I suppose…maybe, I was hoping that…"

As Rayne stumbled over her words he sighed irritably. He hadn't been lying, his patience really was wearing thin. "Come on Rayne, out with it while we're all still young please."

Rayne flicked the hair back from her eyes, meeting his crystalline eyes with unmarred vision. She poured as much emotion as she could into her own amethyst orbs as she began to speak, her voice calm and steady with as much conviction as she could muster. "I thought perhaps I'd mean a little more to you than simply a life you've been assigned to take."

At her words he frowned. Opening his mouth as if to speak but her words had not at all been what he was expecting to hear that no reply would immediately come to his lips. In the end all he could muster was a lame, "What are you talking about girl." His tone not nearly as firm or definite as once it had been.

"You are my father." She said firm but coaxingly. "I know that you must kill me for what has happened but I thought that perhaps you would do me just this one thing. A little something to show that I did mean something to you."

He scoffed at her words. Shaking his head he turned away from her gaze, raising a hand in a dismissive gesture. But before he could respond Rayne had stepped forwards and yet again grabbed his hand. She tugged his arm sharply and he instinctively whipped his head around to glare back into her eyes.

"I know we are demons, We're not big on the whole humanity and emotions thing. We may not show them but I know for damn sure that we feel them." She said determinedly. "I would ask this of you, to save his life so that he knows that he did mean something to me." She gestured back to Draco, meeting his nervous grey eyes for the briefest of seconds, before turning back. "And perhaps I could die knowing that I did mean something to you, that I'm not just another demon but your daughter."

He looked down into her eyes and saw something there in her that he had never seen before, had this world really changed her that much, or had it simply brought to the surface something that was inside of them all? Something unfamiliar stirred inside of him as she gripped his hand and for the first time some form of emotion threatened to batter down his barriers and spill out into plain view.

"Do this one thing for me father, please." Rayne said earnestly, her voice barely a whisper. "For so long I've asked nothing of you, please at least make my death a peaceful one."

At her final words he nodded, his purple eyes glimmering with unshed and unspoken emotion. His hand tightened around hers in a far more tender fashion as he spoke. "Very well. If that would be your wish then I give you my word." Something clenched unpleasantly in the pit of his stomach, a feeling that was almost sickening as he continued to fight to suppress his emotions. He broke away from her gaze and looked up to the crowd of silent demons that were still gathered by the stairs, all standing diligently awaiting their orders little good little, well behaved demons. "The boy is not to be harmed." He said more loudly, his words firm and final.

Rayne nodded, dropping his hand from her grip, "Thank you." She muttered softly as she stepped back, a sigh escaping her lips. Now that that matter was over with there would be no more delaying, they were really going to kill her, these would be the last moments of her life.

Rayne sniffed back fresh tears and turned towards Draco. He'd backed up across the room and was stood against the large table upon which Lucius had prepared his potion. He still looked unnerved by the presence of the demons in his home, but he seemed to have grasped the thread that they no longer wanted to kill him and looked more unsettled than terrified. Rayne stepped briskly across the floor and fell against him. Her arms twined around his neck and her lips roughly found his own as she pressed herself tightly to him.

Draco stood for a moment stunned at her sudden advance on him but soon lost himself to the lips that kissed him passionately as he held her tightly. All else forgotten in those few moments except the wet tracks of tears that traced their faces.

In the end it was Rayne who stepped back first, raising her lips from Draco's just enough to whisper, "I'm sorry, I never meant to drag you into all of this."

"Is there no way to change what will happen?" Draco asked, his voice soft but still in danger of cracking under the unexpected and overwhelming emotion that had overtaken him.

Rayne shook her head, sniffing again, "No, I could barter for you life. But there is no chance for mine." She said in a hurried whisper as fresh tears began to cascade down her pale cheeks. "I'm sorry." She said yet again, kissing Draco quickly on the lips once more before tearing herself from his arms and turning back to face her father. "I'm ready, lets get this over with."

He nodded, carefully avoiding her eyes. He moved to stand directly before her, his steps sure and steady, but remained unable to really look at her for fear of hesitating. He knew he had no choice, he would face severe repercussions for letting the boy off and to let Rayne go too would be to sign his own death warrant. He was still pure enough of a demon to know his duty and to be able to perform it, but Rayne, her words and her actions there in that room had awoken something inside of him that left him feeling far less sure and certain of himself than he had been and he feared that seeing Rayne there for what she really was, his daughter, would cause him to break down.

With a heavy sigh he raised his hand, power beginning to prickle along his skin and glow between his fingers. Rayne closed her eyes and turned her head away. It would be quick, that at least was a mercy. He never spoke a word, as he felt the power peak he thrust his hand forwards, forcing the power from his hand and into Rayne.

She felt it grip her body like tightening ropes as it held her before it penetrated her skin. Jolts like electricity pierced her flesh, stronger and more painful with each spark. She felt it kill her organs, each one giving up life against the web of power that gripped it. Her head began to pound against the pressure on her brain but it was as she felt the power grip her heart that she threw her head back and screamed. A searing burning ripped through her chest as the scream tore from her throat and then there was nothing.

A soft thud seemed to echo about the room as Rayne's limp body fell to the floor. It had passed in barely seconds, so little time to extinguish so much life. He looked down on her body where it lay, lifeless and silent, her eyes wide and frantic with pain and on single, silent tear began to trace a damp trail down his cheek. She'd been his daughter and he'd been nothing to her but judge, jury and executioner and now it was too late for things to change. But one thing he could be certain of was that he would never feel quite the same again.

Wiping away the tear he turned with a flourish and hurriedly gestured for the other demons to follow him out. 'But what about the boy?' One of them ventured to ask. They were rewarded with a steely glare, "He is not to be harmed. I gave my word, and a demon always keeps his word." He hissed dangerously before turning to storm up the stairs.

Soon they were all gone leaving the dungeon deserted and quiet. Draco stood silently for several minutes more, his hand gripping the edge of the table so hard his knuckles shone whiter than the pale tone of his skin. They'd just left her lying there in the middle of the floor, tentatively he stepped away from the table, he fingers threatening to cramp, and he knelt by her side. With one gentle hand he pushed shut her eyes, so peaceful now that she could almost be sleeping, and silently he wept.

***

It was a hour before Draco dragged himself up off of the floor. His eyes were red and his usually sleek white blonde hair was a unkempt mess. Particularly glad at that moment there was no one else there to see him in such a state Draco set about the hard task of burying her body. The house was still deserted save for himself, a matter for that time he was grateful for. He made Rayne a grave at the back of the house, a quiet spot amongst the trees he was sure she would have liked.

As Draco headed back to the house to shower and to scrub away the dirt and perhaps also some of the memories he was certain that his life had then changed. He could go back to school and go on like he was supposed to, but nothing would be quite the same. Rayne would be forgotten soon enough by most, but things were changing, something bigger and more terrible was coming for all of them and Draco knew that his place, this time, wouldn't be with them.