The Blood Talisman (16 page)

“
You know exactly what I’m
talking about. Haven’t you been working with your father to obtain
your little boy toy?”

“How do you know about that?” she said
as she strained to reach his hand gripping her hair. She struggled
to gain a stance but the harder she tried, the faster he
pulled.

They reached a set of double doors. Ram
pulled her up to meet his face and said, “Sol has been more than
forthcoming with information about you and the alliance you share
with your father. You ought to be more careful with who you
trust.”

He pushed the double doors open
violently so that they smashed into the walls. Four people jerked
their heads around at the commotion. One was John, standing over
Rose, who was sitting silently in a chair in front of him. Two
guards stood nearby. They both pulled their guns from their
holsters and aimed them diligently at Selene and Ram.

Ram quickly motioned for them to lower
their weapons and they did so. He threw Selene forward across the
boardroom floor and she slid to the middle of the room.

“Boys, can you give us a moment alone,
please?” he asked the two guards.

The clock above the board room table
chimed twelve noon.

“It’s time for the family reunion,” Ram
casually commented.

The clock ended its taunting song and
silence fell. Then a bright ball of light formed in the middle of
the room near Selene.

“He’s here,” Ram announced, as giddy as
an excited little boy with a new toy.

The light grew into a bigger ball and
blinded them all with the intensity of the sun. They turned their
heads away from it. The light faded and Selene’s brother, Sol,
stood in the midst of them. His blond hair fell to broad shoulders.
He had perfect tan skin and his gleaming blue eyes would make any
woman swoon.

Selene between Rose and Sol, forming a
perfect line of siblings.

“
Solomon, how did you ever
get mixed up with these deviants?” Selene asked her
brother.

“Deviants?” Sol echoed, amused. “I
don’t think you and our sister have a lot of room to talk. At least
I don’t lie with dogs.”

“Please don’t do this to our family.
You’re risking your own immortality as well as ours.”

“I’m not the one who decided to risk
our family’s security blanket of immortality. I’ve only tried to
add to it. That talisman is my heritage and it will be mine to use
however I please.”

“While father is alive, it will forever
remain his. He would never willingly give it to you.”

Sol lifted Selene off the ground by her
neck. She stared bravely back down at him and he glared angrily up.
Her air escaped her and darkness was growing in her eyes as life
slowly drained from her body.

“She’s not the sister scheduled for
death, Sol. We have plans, remember?” Ram reminded him.

Sol came to his senses, releasing his
grip from her neck.

“
Having plans does not make
anger simply disappear,” Sol muttered.

“We need the talisman.”

“Let’s begin then.”

Sol grabbed Rose’s lethargic hand and
also took one of Selene’s. Selene glanced over at Rose, who was
kneeling as though in prayer. One arm reached out limply towards
Sol and the other lay peacefully in her lap. Tears swam endlessly
into Selene’s eyes as she gazed down at her sister’s lifeless
existence.

“Take her hand, Selene,” Ram
demanded.

Selene shook her head in defiance as
tears fell down her sad face.

“Take her hand!” he ordered once more.
He grabbed John’s gun from him and pointed its barrel against
Selene’s head.

“No! You can shoot me in the head but,
you can’t kill me.”

Ram rolled his eyes at her, knowing
she spoke the truth.

“
Bring him in!” he yelled
out towards the entrance of the boardroom.

A security guard walked Alex into the
room at gunpoint. He knocked him over the head with the butt of his
gun and Alex fell to his knees. He looked weak as he fell. A wolf
that had not fed was a worthless wolf, but she couldn’t just disown
him. Whether he liked it or not, he was hers. She longed to help
him up off the ground and take him and Rose away, but she would
never make it out with them still alive.

She obeyed Ram’s request and grabbed
her sister’s hand. She stroked the top of Rose’s dry hand with her
thumb. The comforting vibe that she was attempting to send didn’t
seem to register with Rose at all. She seemed to be forever lost in
her thoughts.

A dim grey energy formed in front of
the three siblings. It hovered for a few minutes and faded. Sol
concentrated harder and the energy formed again but faded just as
quickly. Sol shook Selene’s hand hard.

“Focus!” he demanded.

“I am. It’s not me, Sol. It’s Rose.
It’s like she’s… she’s broken,” Selene answered sadly.

The energy formed once again as they
both concentrated harder. The dim, grey energy hovered and closed
several times more before Sol became visibly frustrated. He threw
both of their hands loose from his own and stormed off, away from
the circle of siblings.

Ram and John both stared at him as he
paced the floor. He stopped suddenly and glared at his sisters.
Then he took a deep breath and turned back towards the conference
table surrounded by leather chairs. He lifted a hand and one of the
chairs popped out suddenly. It floated towards him and hovered in
front of his eyes. He lowered his hand and stared at the floating
chair.

He blinked his eyes and the chair
divided into all of it parts. Springs, foam, leather, and tiny
screws drifted aimlessly. He snapped his fingers and two of the
screws glided quickly towards their intended targets. One stopped
at Selene’s forehead and the other at Rose’s. Selene’s eyes
immediately jerked wide open. She glanced over at Sol. He had an
ominous half-grin on his face. It wasn’t anything that Selene
particularly found amusing.

“There is another way to get him to
show his face here. Which one of these sisters do you particularly
prefer to keep here, Ram?” Sol said, as he circled around Selene.
“The werewolf-enamored, moon-obsessed, nature-loving witch or the
crazed, absent-minded future-seeing witch?” He surveyed both of his
sisters, sizing them up for his sinister needs.

“I would prefer to keep the two of
them. They will both serve me well in different ways,” Ram
responded.

“That’s not an answer, my unwanted
adversary. We seek the same thing but for different reasons.” Sol
scrutinized Ram, who was now holding John’s gun comfortably at his
side. Ram looked unusually indecisive.

“You don’t have to do this, Sol. Don’t
tear this family apart” Selene said, voice shaking.

“You have no right to even speak to me!
You’ve been coercing with our father. I believe you want the
talisman for yourself,” Sol yelled.

His thunderous voice rattled the walls
of the conference room. Ceiling tiles fell from around their
heads.

“That’s a lie Sol. Don’t shatter this
family. These people aren’t worth it.”

“It’s not about them. It’s about me. I
am tired of waiting for my inheritance. I have no choice but to
take what is rightfully mine. I want the power.”

Everything quietened in the room. The
screw in front of Selene’s head dropped to the floor like a pin.
She closed her eyes in relief. Her brother had finally listened to
her. She posted a faint smile on her face until she heard a much
thicker thud onto the floor. Rose’s screw hadn’t dropped to the
floor. Her screw had gone through her head.

Selene quickly heaved her sister’s body
up into her arms. She sobbed for the loss of her sister and
screamed in anger at her brother. He hadn’t listened after all. He
sought revenge and all the love within him had gone away. He now
only sought his own personal dirty deeds.

“Now that she is dead, our reclusive
father will appear. I will have the talisman and I will be in
control of life and death,” Sol said. His dirty little grin grew
into a bigger confirmation of approval.

Selene stood, straightened her clothes
and walked over to Sol. She pushed him. He looked down at her in
amusement. She pushed harder and harder until he grabbed her hands
and stopped her. Then she fell against his chest, sobbing her tears
of sorrow onto his crisp dress shirt. They soaked into him until a
grey ball of energy began to form near Rose’s body. The energy grew
from dark to dim and from dim to bright. It turned a beautiful blue
and then purple, and a man stood before them all. Selene knew him
as her father and loved him for that, but the rest of those present
sought him only for what he’d created years ago. The blood talisman
hung in a deep brown forest of chest hair just below his
neck.

They all stood in awe of his
presence.

“Grab him, John!” Ram shouted
out.

John approached him cautiously but the
figure raised one immortal hand and froze him where he stood. The
Immortal was the ruler of time. He could go to the past, freeze the
present, or fast forward through to the future if he wished to do
so. Sol never understood why he chose to not use that power but the
Immortal had his reasons. He could always see the path of where
changing the past would lead so he never chose to alter any events.
Things were meant to be in the fashion that they were meant to be.
Selene admired her father for this and Rose always hoped to be more
accepting of fate, like her father.

The Immortal stood in the middle of the
room looking down at Rose’s lifeless body. Everyone in the room was
terrified of moving towards him. Ram waited on Sol to act and dared
not to speak again for fear of retaliation. Selene merely saw her
father grieving for the loss of his daughter. No tears rained from
his eyes, but as he gazed down at her curly, red hair and her ruby
red lips a flicker of sorrow gleamed in his eyes. His first
daughter lay beneath his feet. He knew that the only one able to
kill her would be himself or one of her siblings and his grief
quickly turned into rage.

Chapter 19

Alex had been kneeling for long enough.
He had been silent for long enough. The tension in the boardroom
was enough to kill the weakest of souls. The wolf within fought its
way to an unbearable level. His skin felt on fire and his bones
felt achy once again. But he had no strength to change and no
strength to move. He felt so helpless inside, but he wanted to
fight for Selene in the same fashion that she had fought for him.
Selene had been there for him in his weakest moments but he was
powerless to return the favor. He couldn’t move, no matter how hard
he tried. Not having fed in a while had affected him more adversely
than he could have ever imagined. He felt more human than ever.
Everyone around him had power in one form or another. He had been
so naïve about what he had become that he hadn’t paid attention to
the good things that being a wolf brought. All he could ever focus
on was the bad, the pain, and how many would be hurt because of it.
The good aspects of his new-found problem never crossed his mind
until this very moment, when he needed them most.

He mustered enough energy to stand up
and the guard behind him attempted to butt him in the head with his
gun again. But as the guard’s hand swung back, Alex grabbed it and
the gun in one swift move. It was almost ninja-like and Alex felt
sudden pride in himself.

The guard had a surprised yet worried
look on his face as he backed away and then fled. Alex turned back
to watch the situation with the Immortal. Nobody noticed that Alex
was now free.

Selene’s family seemed to be coming
apart right in front of her eyes. She reached out a hand to her
father. The Immortal took it and squeezed it tight. Then she pulled
back and he placed both hands over Rose’s body. Her body quickly
turned to dust which grew into a small dust storm. It flew into the
blood talisman that hung around the Immortal’s neck. When the dust
was completely gone, they all remained staring at the triple
crescent moon charm that had a bright red ruby encased between the
three moons.

Sol finally spoke up and said, “Give me
the talisman, Father, or you will lose another child.”

“You no longer exist as my child. I
fear no one and you are no exception,” the Immortal said in a
majestic voice.

“Father, I am here for whatever you
need,” Selene said.

“I know, my child. There will come a
moment in your life when you will want to forsake me as well, but
your verdict has eluded my sight. I cannot see free will,” he
answered.

“Hyperion, you must choose a successor.
Let that be your only son,” Ram said to the Immortal.

“Your kind should have never been
created,” spat Hyperion. “My former wife thought it would be a good
balance for my wolves to have vampires as their companions. We
cannot always be correct in our decisions and hers was a tragic
mistake. You have no right to speak with me.”

“Father, this will not end well for
you. I shall have the talisman. It is my birthright,” Sol
declared.