The Moon Portal III

Violet's vision spun, and her head felt heavy. She forced her mind to stay awake, but her vision was slowly darkened until her head lolled back, and she collapsed to the wooden floor completely.

Aldren watched the platinum blonde lose consciousness, his ears listening to her heartbeat. The strong scent of iron filled his senses, and he clenched his jaw in fury. He didn't like what he saw, blood staining the blue shirt she was wearing, and just for that, at least one of the two women had to die.

"I'll give you a chance, drop it now, and I'll allow her to live," Aldren said, tightening his hold around Tracey's neck; it was so easy to snap her neck after all. He watched as Melissa's eyes filled with hesitation; if she were smart, she would take the deal and thank whichever god or goddess she serves for making him feel generous despite the betrayal. He could quickly end her and her granddaughter, then and there. He was faster than her after all; they'd both be dead in seconds.

"You have three seconds," he said, opening his mouth again to start counting down. He felt Tracey's body begin to shake in his arms, and she bit her lip to keep from bawling like a child. However, before he could even finish uttering the number three, Melissa dropped the dagger and raised both her hands in surrender.

"Please, spare her. It was I who summoned the Guardians," she begged him, and a smirk emerged from his lips. He released the girl casually and blurred before the older woman, causing her to tense in both fear and surprise.

"Tell them I said Hi," he said, wiping his hand over her flesh in a flash.

A shriek passed Tracey's mouth, and she fell to her knees, shaking as she gazed upon her grandmother's head, lolling back and forth on the carpeted floor. Blood gushing out from where her head once was.

The look on her grandmother's eyes glazed over, staring straight at her causing her body to shake like a leaf petrified. She had the urge to run, but her legs had already given out on her. Her heart pounded against her ears, and she felt woozy. She wondered if she was only dreaming? That can't be real, right? This was all just a terrible nightmare.

Aldren bent down, picking up Violet off the floor, something he'd done one too many times for his liking. He would have preferred her, pushing him away. At least then, he was sure she had enough strength to move. The blonde powerless was something he didn't like, and the urge to paint the walls red with blood was strong. He held it in and placed her on the bed. His eyes narrowed at the blood staining the covers, but more so on the shirt, she was wearing. Carefully he tore her shirt, revealing her sports bra and pale white skin, and he knew this wasn't her normal complexion.

She was losing blood.

His eyes rested on the witch sitting by the door, "Get me something to stop the bleeding." he ordered, catching Tracey's attention. The woman looked at him wide-eyed, and she pushed herself to move, falling a few times before finally being able to balance herself. The way he had looked at her, she knew he wasn't asking, and she scampered to go get some first aid supplies in the kitchen cabinet. She returned minutes later, cleaning up the blonde's wound.

From her inspection, the wound had yet to start healing, something highly unusual with hybrids. Their regenerative abilities were one of the things that made them so dangerous in the first place, and now, there were two fully grown hybrids in their house, no, now, only 'her' house.

Aldren's watchful eyes narrowed at the woman; she better not try anything. He had not an ounce of patience left in him that day; he didn't have much, to begin with. She pressed the gauze on Violet's wound, but Aldren could see that she had not stopped bleeding. His eyes narrowed at the dagger on the floor, and he picked it up, examining it with his eyes and then placing it inches away from his nose and sniffing it.

There was something there; it had been glazed with something.

"What did she put here?" he asked her, his tone on the verge of snapping. Her brows furrowed in confusion, "I don't --" she started, but before she could finish her words, his hand wrapped around her neck harshly. And she could no longer breathe, she struggled under his tight hold, and her eyes started to grow hazy. IS this how I die? She wondered. Aldren reined the urge to break the woman's neck; if he didn't need her, she would have been dead already. But he needed to make sure the blonde would survive, at least until his people arrived. He did order for one of his loyal witches to come along.

"You better reconsider your words before answering," he warned, releasing her abruptly, her legs gave away under her, and she coughed on the floor repeatedly, gasping for air.

"I don--" she paused, looking at him, "I will find out," she said, getting up. She made a move to leave but paused suddenly, uncertain if she could leave and find out what her grandmother used in the basement. "Go." he spat, and she ran.

Tracey gasped upon entering the basement, her eyes darting from the two Guardians on the floor. She turned to look at the mirror, but no one was longer there; it was her grandmother who opened the gate after all, and now that she was dead, it was now closed.

She manoeuvred away from the bodies as she moved to check for any signs of what her grandmother had used on the blade. She finally noticed the mortar and pestle on the table, and she dipped her finger on the remaining residue and sniffed it. It held the same scent. And she hurried towards the grimoire and noticed it was an instruction on how to make a potion--one that would keep the wound open.

She hurriedly scanned the page, searching for something to counteract it.

"Banishing oil," she read out loud. However she paused for a moment, noticing the other book on the ground, she picked it up and saw the spell on it, and she wandered back to the memory of her grandmother and shook her head, she had to concentrate.

Tracey swiftly started collecting the herbs she needed for the oil, grabbing basil, angelica root, dried lemon peels, pepper, rue, wormwood, and asafoetida powder also known as devil's dung and putting it all in a mason jar. She then added the castor oil, making sure each ingredient seeped under the oil. She looked back at the book and read the incantation.

"Et invocabo deum atque in potestatibus spirituum,

Relego, quod suus 'non receperint hic.

Et oleum, et haec habet leporem

Ad quos eieci quid faciam nocere"

Hoping it worked, she made her way back to the bedroom.

Tracey paused, and her eyes widened at sight before her. The Abomination was on the bed with the blonde, and he was forcing her to drink his blood. His bleeding wrist pressed against her mouth as she struggled away. Failing miserably.