Ch. 7-Come What May
It came as no surprise that the next morning Artemis found himself alone in his bed; Adora had to get back to Abraxas before he suspected anything. Dear God, the thought hadn't even occurred to him. If Abraxas had ever found out about them, he beats his child for not sitting up straight, Artemis couldn't even imagine. Abraxas was dangerous, Artemis knew that, and he started questioning whether it was wise to let his wife sleep with him. Nevertheless he wanted to talk to her, what exactly had happened, did it mean anything, and did she love him? Too many questions needed answering, and he couldn't stand the uncertainty anymore. He had to know.
He took two steps out of his room and he heard Abraxas downstairs, roaring like a lion, Artemis felt his heart stop for a moment, than was beating wildly.
"Where is he!" Abraxas bellowed from downstairs. Artemis could hear him stomping his way to the foyer was making his way to the stairs. Artemis fled to his room, he was panicking his heart was going crazy. He shut the door and locked it and took out his wand. He backed up to the far end of the room, wand at the ready, pointing straight for the door. Than he waited; he could feel his footsteps shaking the ground and heard Adora behind him pleading.
"Please Abraxas it wasn't his fault." Artemis was shaking with fear, he knew he was coming for him and only hoped he could stop him long enough to escape. He wasn't experienced enough to disapparate, God knows where he might end up, but anywhere was better than here. He was getting closer, shouting and screaming. Artemis quaked with horror in his mind, until Abraxas had made his way up the stairs, he had only seconds before he would break down the door, and try to kill him, but Artemis would be ready for him. His footsteps drew closer and closer, Artemis breathed heavily trying to keep up with his heart and finally Abraxas was upon his door, here he comes. But Artemis heard him walk by, still bellowing but he walked right past his room. Artemis stepped slowly to the door, and opened it looking out of the room wand still in hand. He cautiously unlocked the door, and stepped out. Down the hall he could see Abraxas coming out of the bedroom down the hall, his hands around the back of a person's neck, he was dressed in a suit, but a raggedy one at that, he looked as if he had had a rough night, and had a messy head of blonde hair and a rough looking beard. Abraxas was pulling him down the hall and to the stairs, Abraxas bellowed right in the man's face.
"Stay out of my house!" With that Abraxas threw the man down the stairs, he rolled and tumbled and finally hit the tile with a boom. The thin man scrambled himself up and stumbled out the door quickly. Artemis gave a sigh of relief, he didn't even care about who the man was or why he was just thrown down the stairs, he only cared that it wasn't him. Adora came out of the bedroom, and Artemis stopped her and asked.
"Who was that?"
"Abraxas' brother, Dimitri", she looked down and sighed. "He's a drunk, he was shunned by the Malfoy family years ago, sometimes he comes here for help, and last night I let him sleep here."
"To be honest I thought he was coming for me." Adora smiled.
"He'll never know." Adora said as she ran her hands through his hair and went in for a kiss, Artemis loved kissing her but had to stop her.
"No, no stop", Artemis looked at her with urgency in his eyes. Adora looked confused. "I have to know, about last night, what did that mean?" Adora led Artemis back into his room, and shut the door. She paused and looked straight at the wall.
"You have to understand Artemis, I'm not happy here." She paused again, longer. "I hate him, I hate everything about him, I hate being his pet, his prize, his slave I can't take it anymore!" She paced about the room slowly. "I hate everything he does to my son and I want to leave!" Tears welled up in her eyes.
"Why don't you?"
"It's not that simple Artemis."
"We could leave, take Lucius with us and…"
"I can't!" She stared at him tears slowly rolling down her cheeks as she squeezed her eyes shut. "My family used to be like the Malfoys. Pure-blood, wealthy, aristocratic; unfortunately my father gambled away our estate, our home, and all of our wealth." A brief silence. "My family left it up to me to restore our wealth, If I married Abraxas we would have money again, I didn't want to, but my family laid a curse on me. A curse of devotion, I have to obey him, anything he wants."
"Really?"
"Why else would a young woman in her twenties marry a miserable old man?" Artemis thought about this and suddenly it made sense. Artemis had wondered why Adora was married to him, not just their age difference, but why she would allow Abraxas to beat her child, or why she had never seen Adora and Abraxas kiss or laugh together. She was a prisoner.
"What does that have to do with us?"
"I need you Artemis, to set me free to give me some release from that monster." Artemis thought about his next question.
"Do you…like me?" Adora approached him and put her hands on his shoulders and pressed herself against him."
"Of course I do."
"But do you…you know…love me?" Adora thought about this. She smiled and kissed Artemis.
"Yes", Artemis smiled back at her and they kissed. Adora giggled and smiled and Artemis laughed with her. Artemis picked her up by the waist and spun her around, than they embraced, and Adora leaned her head on his chest. "You make me fell…hopeful. I love you Artemis."
"I love you Adora." They kissed again, the most passionate they ever had. But the scare Artemis had this morning had been too great to ignore. "What'll we do about Abraxas?"
"You'll have to kill him." These words hovered over Artemis. The thought haunted him, but Artemis knew what Abraxas was, he was a brute, a crazed angry bastard trying to force the conformities of the aristocracy on his family. He decided.
"Alright, I'll do it. We'll have to plan it carefully, and once he's gone we'll run away together and take Lucius with us."
"What of the cause?"
"You matter more to me than the cause, Tom can replace Abraxas."
"Alright"
"We'll kill him after the campaign. Gain more of his trust." They kissed once more.
"I must go, he'll wonder where I am", with a final kiss she left and Artemis looked hopefully to the future.
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Months passed, and a lot had happened.
Lucius had turned six years old and was very proud to have to use two hands to show his age. Abraxas accepted a post at the Ministry of Magic, as the Activities Director, which pretty much means he gets to tell people what to do all day, he'll like that. His new job allowed him to spy on the Ministry and to hinder their investigation of the attacks. More importantly he was out of the house more often, which gave Adora and Artemis time to "be alone". They had made love several times, other times they planned their assassination of Abraxas. But best of all their love for one another had grown to an unyielding love that ridded the strife of Adora's imprisonment. The campaign was nearing an end; 11 cities had been destroyed by Artemis, two remained; a large city near Bristol, and the final target, London. After the destruction of the twelfth target Artemis would kill Abraxas, and when Tom took his place they would destroy London together. After that Adora and Artemis would run away together, take Lucius and go far away, leave all this behind them, it was all so perfect. Every night Abraxas has a drink in front of the fire before going to bed; he would use the killing curse and kill him. So simple, although things are never as simple as we plan them.
Artemis surveyed the city before him, ready to destroy it. His choice for tonight was Toccata Fugue in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach. Artemis enjoyed what he did, and in time he had forgotten about the lives he ended, he passed any guilt out of his mind with the notion that, these people that he slays in the name of the cause are swine ready to be slaughtered. The city Artemis faced was the largest he'd ever gone to destroy, skyscrapers, apartments, and large public buildings. Artemis had grown more powerful over these past months, heightening his senses, strengthening his magic, and improving his methods of destruction. He laid his music on his stand, took out his wand, breathed deeply, and began.
The beginning of the Toccata Fugue is an infamous one, with the first note of the piece black smoke shot from several areas with great force exploding like dust from a great organ of which this song is played, forming giant columns shooting into the sky. As the song progressed in the solemn and dreary chords the columns of smoke moved sullenly and came together. They swirled round and round and the wind picked up giving velocity to the dark fog. With the twirling notes of the ominous organ the dark massive cloud spun faster and faster and the heavy wind from the forming funnel cloud could be felt across Artemis' face. The massive ebony tornado swirled around the city destroying everything with its powerful torrents of wind. Buildings were ripped apart in seconds and glass shattered and fell to the streets below. In the streets could be seen the massive swarms of people, running in terror. Being picked up and thrown with great force. The destructive titan began spraying jets of black air that flew across the city, blowing through buildings ripping apart the skyscrapers. The force of the wind blew around all the debris of the city sending everything swirling with the storm funnel that fueled the powerful winds. The jets of black smoke destroyed everything in their path leaving no survivors wherever it went. The winds blew Artemis cloak and he roared, drunk with power, he could feel the power coursing through his veins, and as the notes of the song danced everywhere so did the smoke. Attacking all around with fluid precision and grace and as the final chord of the song came to a close the black tornado exploded into brilliant black mist scattering across the city lightly with the white snow. Skyscrapers fell, all were dead, the city had been brought to its knees and there were no survivors, he could tell. He noticed that when music played he could tell when someone was around, and he sensed no one, so peaceful and quiet. Silent death swept across the city with the pleasant snowfall trickling down.
When he returned to Malfoy Manor, Adora was waiting for him. She greeted him and kissed him. She must be mad for kissing him in the open.
"The dumb brute had to stay late at the Ministry, so we have the whole house to ourselves." She said this with a seductive tone and bit her lip and took Artemis by the hand and led him upstairs. "Let's make love on his bed."
"Are you mad?"
"Let's do it, right here on his bed." Artemis laughed and wrapped his arms around her.
When it was all over they lied there, at total peace, and even more peace because Adora didn't have to run off. She could stay and lie with him.
"I love you Artemis."
"I love you Adora"
"Soon we'll be together forever, without any secrets without any lies, after he's dead we'll be free."
"It's going to be wonderful."
"I want you to have something before you destroy London." Adora unhooked her emerald heart necklace and put it in Artemis hands and closed his hand around it. "No matter what happens, you'll always have my heart close to yours."
"Nothing's going to happen Adora, we'll be together, and we'll be happy, and we'll love each other until the end of time."
"I still want you to have it, please Artemis, in case anything should happen." Artemis took the necklace in his hand, opened his fingers and looked at it, than at her."
"Alright I'll take it. But listen to me, nothing's going to happen." They kissed and smiled at one another and lied peacefully together and drifted off into sleep.
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Artemis was pleased to wake up and still see Adora lying next to him. He got dressed and headed downstairs, he had Dobby fix some breakfast and took it up to Adora. He left her to eat and surveyed the house, going to parts of it he had never seen before. Finally he stumbled upon Abraxas' office; most of it had been moved to his Ministry office. He slept at his office a lot lately, good thing. He wandered around fiddling with the random things he found on his desk. He admired his desk, beautiful wood with snakes carved into the posts with their heads on each corner mouths open, fangs bearing. Each snake had bright emerald stone eyes. He rubbed his fingers against the eyes and they pushed in. The sound of rolling tumblers and shifting gears came from the wall to his right, as it turned round it had a platform and on the platform was a glass case, inside which was a sword. The sword was a brilliant shining silver, with green gems at the end of the pommel, twisting snakes made up the. The blade itself was even more peculiar, not a straight blade, but a Kriss blade, wavy like a squiggly line made into a sword. Along the blade a name was inscribed, Salazar Slytherin. Artemis took a step back with shock. He had heard of the sword of Goderick Gryffindor, but the sword of Salazar Slytherin? His mind was interrupted by the opening of the front door. Artemis whipped around and pushed the snake eyes in, turning the wall back round as he fled the office.
Artemis was relieved to discover Tom standing in the Foyer, he greeted Tom.
"Hello Tom, what brings you here today, no lessons on Sundays remember."
"It's not that Artemis." Artemis could sense the urgency in Tom's voice.
"Tom what's wrong?"
"It's your parents Artemis." Artemis had never visited his parents, but he wrote them to tell them he was alright, and he sent money that the Malfoys had given him.
"What's wrong with my parents?"
"I'm afraid they're dead Artemis, they've been murdered." Artemis eyes widened and his mouth clenched with anger. He burst from the front door and disapparated to his old village. He hadn't been to Chesterton for a long time, but it was just as he remembered. He saw his house and ran to it, seeing the front door ajar; he burst into the front room and called out.
"Mom! Dad!" Artemis ran into the living room and found them, dead on the floor. No blood, the killing curse. Artemis dropped to his knees in front of them. Tears of anger and hate welled up in his eyes as he held his dead parent's in his arms. Behind him stood Tom.
"I'm sorry Artemis, I tried to protect them, but he got here before me."
"Who?"
"You know who." He did know; he held his parents tightly in his arms as tears fell down his face. Tom spoke after a pause, "Name him." Artemis stood red with fury, tears staining his face. With hate in his eyes he said it.
"Broderick Muldoon!"