Chapter 26—Hika's choice
"You knock him out, I'll just find some other way to get him killed. You'll never win. If you knock Ryota out, I'll just jump to Alis there and kill him with her powers. If you get knocked out then I'll leave him but you'll never be allowed to leave." Bleathe taunted through Ryota's body.
Hika had been about to knock her brother out through a pressure point in his side that she'd found on accident during a training session with him two weeks after he had joined the family again. The options were limited. She was stuck. She couldn't hurt him, but she couldn't lose. Or she could lose and give her brother a chance to live his life without interference from Bleathe and Edmund.
The girl struggled free from her brother's grasp and stumbled back. She stared up into Ryota's eyes and felt like she was staring through him into Bleathe's own eyes. The choice was simple.
"What if I give myself to you?" Hika asked.
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Kuronue was in a side room to the ballroom, facing off with Edmund. Half way through the fight he had been led there after receiving a half-heal from a girl named Alis. On the door was a one-way mirror that showed what was happening in the other room. His eyes were locked on Hika as she fought with her brother.
"Let her go Edmund! Who she falls for is her own choice, but I unfairly influenced that by taking her each time. Let her go!" Kuronue tried to weasel him out of hurting the girl that he'd found himself falling in love with again.
"Oh, I don't think so. Not until she realizes that she'll never be free of me. Ah, there is the sign," Edmund said as he watched Hika pull back from her brother and whisper a few words. "It is too bad that you will never taste her lips again. I'll take her, give her my mate's mark while she's controlled by Bleathe and then she'll be linked to me for the rest of her life."
"No!" Kuronue snarled, pulling free of his guard's grasp and lunging at Edmund.
/
"What if you give yourself to me? Well! That would make everything three times simpler," Bleathe said with a laugh "You'll regret saying that little girl. But how can I refuse such a wonderful offer.
Ryota cried out as he collapsed, his hands going to his head as Bleathe pulled from his mind and jumped at Hika's. Just as Hika felt Bleathe slip into her mind she caught a glimpse of a man falling through a pair of doors to her right. She turned her head to look just as Bleathe yanked her consciousness back.
Kuronue! she screamed as she saw him kicked off by Edmund and his human body went skidding across the floor into Ryota's unconscious body at Hika's feet.
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Note From author: I know that this is short. :3 I know, you probably want to kill me by now for what I've put these two through. WELL! If it makes you feel any better we are down to only having Chapter 27, 28, and 29 plus an epilogue left. Perhaps more chapters will be put up this evening. Depends on how long they turn out to be (I personally thought this would be much longer when I wrote it up on my notebook paper. o^o Please do not hurt me for shortness). ROSEY