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Patrice takes advantage of the distraction and leaps to the trio’s side. “Mother is very angry with you,” she warns. “It’s time to go.” She grabs Alexander’s wrist, forcing him to drop Walter’s chain.
“We’re not going with you, Mother,” Autumn answers. “We’re going to live with Mommy at the beach, watch television, and drink goat’s blood.”
Patrice looks at me with hatred in her eyes. Sensing what’s about to happen, Amelia and Thorne flank either side of me, along with the three lycan. We stand as a team, awaiting whatever Patrice is about to deliver.
She releases Alexander and lands in front of me with her teeth bared and her face contorted. “You will die,” she warns. “Youmurdered my children.”
“Your children were nothing more than monsters,” Amelia spews. “You murdered them the day you turned them into this.”
“I saved them,” she retorts. “Without me, they would have died.”
“I wouldn’t have died, Mother,” Alexander is standing next to the woman who transformed him years ago. “I was at the circus with my family. You took me from them.Youdid this to me.” His perfect clothes are covered in blood, along with his face and hair.
“I was on my way to school,” Autumn joins. Her perfect curls are messy and caked with dark blood. “You forced me into your car. You gave me…you gave me to the men before you turned me. They’re the ones who nearly killed me. Not my family.”
“Me, too,” Everly adds. “I was visiting the zoo with my grandmother. Something we did every summer. I was happy being human.” She looks at the other two children. “Youdid this to us. You don’t deserve to live.”
“Enough!” Patrice shouts. “How dare you speak to me in that tone.” She makes eye contact with all three of them. “You will be punished.”
“No, Mother.Youwill be punished.” Alexander transforms into the monster she made.
Patrice matches his energy, transforming into an equally terrifying creature. “Don’t flatter yourself, Alexander. I made you. That means you cannotdefeat me.”
“He’s an immortal child, Patrice,” Amelia says. “That means he’s stronger than you’ll ever be.”
In a flurry of movement, Patrice moves behind Everly and Autumn, sweeping them into her arms and jumping through the large stained-glass window behind the stage.
“No!” Alexander screams as she disappears with the girls in tow. Amelia wraps her arms around his chest, holding him in place before he runs after them. “Let me go!”
The lycan exit seconds after Patrice, following the psychopath vampire. “They’ll find her,” I reassure the immortal child vampire.
“No, they won’t. She’s faster than they are.”
“I’ll go,” Thorne says, following the wolves through the window.
“My sisters,” Alexander cries. “She’ll kill them.” He fights against Amelia, who’s barely able to hold him.
“Alexander, stop! You won’t be able to fight her alone.”
“My sisters!” he continues.
I move in front of him, looking him in the eyes. “Alexander, look at me.” His eyes are searching every area of the broken window, staring past me. “Look at me,” I repeat, calmly. He slowly turns toward me, tears flowing down his cheeks.
“We’ll find them,” I whisper.
“Don’t make a promise you can’t keep, Elsie!” He pulls out of Amelia’s grip, moving toward the window.
In a moment straight from a superhero movie, something overtakes my body. Emotion mixed with anger flows to the surface, and I move between Alexander and the window, reaching the spot before he does. Wrapping my arms around him, I pull him to the ground with ease and hold his hands above his head.
“Let me go!” he screams, not able to move against my grip.
“No,” I repeat my words from earlier. “I will not let her kill you.”
The moment the fight leaves from his eyes, his face returns to the innocent boy from before, and he cries the kind of cry that’s reserved for pillows. He cries years’ worth of tears, screaming in anger, hurt, and pain.
Watching his pain breaks something deep inside me. I release my hold, pull him to my chest, and wrap my arms around him. “I’m sorry this happened to you, Alexander.” Instinct kicks in, and I begin rocking him like I would do my siblings when they were hurt or scared.
Amelia stands guard as I hold him like the child he is. I don’t know how much time passes before his sobs begin to soften and his body relaxes in my arms. I gently rub my hands through his hair, offering the love he never received from Patrice.
