15. VENGEANCE
Athenodora looked at Caius being attacked by a pack of wolves. She ran and helped to beat them off of him. The beasts were easy to kill and they were lucky that none of the Romanian army was around to take advantage of their weakened state. Athenodora saw what was happening and she knew what needed to be done. She ran. Through the frenzy that was around her, she pushed past everyone that stood in her way. She ran until she reached the base of the castle. She began to climb the stone wall without any difficulty. She climbed until she was directly below Octavian's balcony. She moved to the left side where she knew Demetri was standing at his post. She barely peeked above his floor level and he glanced down at her. He ever so slightly moved his head to one side and then back to send her the message not yet.
"Switch sides with me, Dominique," Demetri said. "I think I sense someone coming from your side. I need to get a better feel for it." With that they traded posts and now Demetri stood next to Claudia while Dominique guarded Octavian.
Athenodora looked down and waited to catch Afton's eye. He finally looked up to catch her staring at him. He did a double take because he almost looked away without noticing. Athenodora fiercely pointed her hand up towards the balcony. Afton caught on and turned the small flame in his hand into a large fireball. With perfect aim, he shot it towards Octavian once again.
Claudia laughed, "When will he learn that his power is useless against me?" Just as she focused her energy into dissolving the ball of fire, Demetri made his move.
More quickly than anyone could see, he grabbed her head and ripped out her throat with his teeth. Then he pulled off her head the rest of the way and tossed it down into a smoldering fire below. Dominique noticed it first because Octavian was too concentrated on controlling the animals. But before she could do anything to stop Demetri, Athenodora flipped herself upward and jumped onto the balcony and dismembered her as well. Octavian came out of his trance when he realized that his wife and bodyguard were being destroyed. A brief shot of pain crossed his face as he realized what had happened to Claudia. As Demetri was about to move onto Octavian, the Romanian leader jumped from the balcony and fled into the woods.
Demetri jumped down too and was about to follow but Aro commanded him to stay and help. "We can track him down later!" Aro shouted. Demetri obeyed.
Now that the animals were mostly dead and the few remaining were no longer being controlled by Octavian, Aro's army began to fight back with a vengeance. Chelsea could concentrate again on weakening the bonds of the Romanian army.
Every Romanian soldier was engaged in combat. Marcus took advantage of the opportunity and snuck into the castle right through the front gate. After entering the castle he closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. He picked up the scent of who he was searching for and followed a winding staircase up into a tower. He silently and slowly walked down the hall. He stopped at a door that was only open ajar. He heard the patter of quick footsteps as she seemed to be pacing the floor. He pushed the door open the rest of the way and Eveline turned to see the intruder.
"Get out!" she hissed at him.
Marcus entered the large room and closed the door behind him. "Was it you?" he asked soberly. "Were you the one who killed her?"
Just then, Nadia appeared out of nowhere. She screeched as she leapt through the air ready to pounce onto Marcus. It was her duty to protect Eveline, her master's wife. She tackled Marcus to the ground and he was about to fight back when Nadia began to use her gift, her aura of melancholia. In normal circumstances it would not have been very powerful but in Marcus' case, he was particularly vulnerable. All of the hurt and sadness he had shoved away, deep down inside, now emerged with magnified feeling. Nadia made it so that Marcus was ultra sensitive to the pain that already consumed him. It was unbearable and he thought the pain itself might kill him. Images of Didyme flashed behind his eyes. Her soft smile, tortured and turned into screams of agony.
With a quick and sudden movement Nadia was thrown against the wall of the room. Charles had come to his rescue. But he was not alone, Makenna was with him. Eveline took off running out of the room.
"Go after her!" Charles yelled at Marcus. "We've got this one!" he called over his shoulder as he pinned Nadia against the wall.
Marcus had to take a moment to compose himself and force the pain back into its corner so that he could even function. He stumbled into the hall and tracked Eveline's scent.
While Marcus pursued Eveline, the struggle continued with Nadia. She tried to use her ability on them as well and the utter depression did affect them but only for a moment. They were well aware of Nadia's gift and instead of wallowing in depression, Charles and Makenna focused on their love for each other. It was enough to make Nadia's ability null and void. They worked together as a team to tear her apart and end her life.
Marcus chased Eveline up another flight of stairs into a small bell tower. There were balconies on all four sides of the room and Eveline was just about to jump down from one of them but Marcus caught her in time. He squeezed his hand around her throat and smashed her head into a wall of rock. Then he pushed her body against the balcony so that it bent backwards and the upper portion of her body hung over the stone railing that had two stone gargoyles on either side. The frenzy of war continued beneath her.
He repeated the question. "Was it you? Are you the one responsible? Or was it your husband? Lucian is the leader of your coven, after all. Did he make the decision to kill Didyme?" The pain licked at the edges of Marcus' sanity.
"I don't know what you're talking about!" she screamed at him.
"It's useless to hide it from me. Aro saw the truth. It was Lucian, wasn't it?"
Eveline's eyes darted from side to side as she tried to find a way out.
"Well how appropriate then. He took away the only one who ever mattered to me. Now I'll return the favor." Marcus tightened his grip around her throat. "I want to hear you say it. The truth. Tell me."
She looked at him with pleading eyes. "Marcus, listen to me, I promise to tell you everything. We had nothing to do with-"
In an instant, pale slender hands reached up from the opposite side of the balcony and clasped onto Eveline's head. Sulpicia's face appeared and she sunk her teeth into Eveline's throat. Quicker than Marcus could respond, Sulpicia ripped off Eveline's head and tossed it below her. Eveline's white ringlets fluttered as the wind blew through her hair for the last time.
"What have you done?" Marcus shouted at Sulpicia.
She hopped onto the right side of the balcony and continued to dismember Eveline's body and throw the pieces over the ledge.
"Sulpicia," he pleaded, softer this time, "Why did you do that?"
She turned to look at him and thought the answer was obvious. "I didn't like the song she was singing."
