Times were changing and fast. It was only a matter of time before the snake caught the mouse. With a book in hand, she gripped it tightly. There were things not even she knew what her mother was up to. However, deep in the recesses of the old manor, a vault had been found. Kirika had opened it only to shut it and had come to her. It was a secret space that the darkness didn’t even want to touch. It was an odd place and in her hands was the plan that Cyprus wanted to in the act.

It made the demon in her want to vomit. However, she stayed calm as she packed it away in her pouch and began to move with the rumors. She needed to find Dante and give him the warning. That and she really did miss his nice rather well shaped behind. She moved with the shadows and came out at a well known little tavern.

Making her way in she caught the attention of a few men who through whistles. Her bi-colored eyes stared out at the single man that she knew rather well. She came up behind him and grabbed his tush with her whole hand. “It’s been a while Handsome.” It looked like he was flirting. She laid kisses on his shoulder and came around to view what it was he was doing.

“I really hate to be that person but we need to talk.” There was a smile on her face. She wanted to do more than talk but she couldn’t decide what was more important Colden or sex with Dante. The line was certainly blurred.

It had been several uneventful months for the seducer as he did as he does best- spending plenty of time wandering and  capturing the attention of women any chance he could get. He had been one of the few of the special children that his father had trusted for unlike most of them, his lips weren’t loose. Like his safety words, the information told to him would be kept tight from most unless he wanted to spill it. Even his high strung sister and ever raging brother couldn’t pry anything from him; though both put up good efforts to.

For now, he enjoyed the sights of Adeluna, particularly the streetwalkers that frequented The Winking Mermaid. On tonight’s menu, he was at the bar with a lovely little brunette with vivid green eyes. They had only met a few moments ago, but already the pleasantries had been exchanged and he still had enough silver to obtain her services for as long as he’d like and not to mention the amount of alcohol they were consuming as well. As they spoke, he was lust struck as usual as lewd thoughts came pouring into his mind of what he wanted to do with her. Currently he wondering whether his new found friend was a fan of lace or leather as he coyly sipped at his glass of wine and made pleasant talk and a few jokes with her. She certainly was a pretty little frilly, for a human no less, especially that smile of hers. Oh the dirty things he wanted to do…

Mentally he was licking his chops while keeping his outward composure until he felt a hand grab him in an interesting place. His attention was drawn enough to turn his head to see who made such a daring move and lo and behold it was an all too familiar face. It had been a long while since he seen her and a slick smile couldn’t help but to come out. After all, she wasn’t made out of the same stuff that other women were; in fact she was much alike to him in their ways. “Likewise, Lotus. Likewise.” Already he had forgotten about the streetwalker that he was accompanied with, at least for the time being. “What brings you out all the way here?” There were a few ideas he could think of as to her reason being here, but he wanted to hear it from her pretty little mouth.

Dante’s smile faded just a tad when they had to actually talk about something, and soon that list he made of her reasons was shortened greatly and he assumed that it was about the one thing they had to be serious about. Turning back to the other woman, he could see that she wasn’t too happy with him giving Lotus all his attention. “Little dove, I have some business to conduct right now, so we will have to continue this another time.” Just as he finished, he reached over and touched her hand, expelling his magic onto her. The deep frown on her face eroded and she nodded before kissing his cheek. Lust filled eyes were on her as she left and he winked.

“Well that’s one matter dealt with”, he sighed before taking another deep sip and called the bartender to get another bottle and glass for the Rosenite. As much as he’d rather spend some more time with her between sheets or somewhere more adventurous, he had to behave right now. “So, what is the matter this time? Is it about our favorite person?  

Lotus snaked her arms around Dante and frowned. “Oh, I wish it was good news. Though tracking down an irresistible half demon like yourself is always fun.” She chuckled a bit. She had burnt through a lot of resources finding him this time.

Her eyes were not blinded enough by his beauty that she hadn’t watched his mouth change just the tad. Lotus turned her head to the woman he had been talking to. She was a pretty little thing.  She let out a humble sigh as the woman got a wink at. “Oh to be doted on by you,” it was mostly a joke as she didn’t think Dante really doted on anyone.

Lotus removed herself from his shoulders and sat down by him now as the bartender brought her a bottle. “Yes,” was all she said as she poured the bottle. “Troubling as it is. If I didn’t find you right away I was afraid I would get killed for mishandling information.” A serious offense that. She poured some wine and sipped it softly. 

“I found a book in a hidden vault. Mother has been awfully quiet and I found out why from a very, very small Angela.” Lotus put out her hand and showed the height. “Seems mother made the dumb move after getting loose. Yes, someone freed my mother from her cage. Poor Bird was late to the game to enact her vengeance. She had a whole week to kill Angela’s family but she couldn’t even breach the Goddess’s home while she was dead.” 

Lotus shrugged as it didn’t matter to her. She didn’t want to be in the middle of this. “The vault was found not long after she got released. Kirika has been cleaning up the manor and found it sealed in a type of magic that made Angela overlook it at first. What I found.” She took the book out and set it in between them. “Is… not what I wanted to hear about.”

She propped her elbow up and put her chin in her hand as she stared at the handsome devil next to her. “All of the plans for Colden and Kirika are in that book. Right from the whore’s own mouth. It explains everything. The ritual, what will happen to them, the being she plans on summoning. The amount of research that went into the details in the pages here… I don’t want to know how many died. Even for a demon it's a very, very high number. She might have even gotten details on the hows from other demons. Not that it shocks me.”

She held the wine glass to her lips and drank it. She sat there silently for a while before her eyes flickered to Dante. “I don’t wish this on anyone, not even my enemies. That is truly saying something.” Her voice was a lot softer now as was her gaze as she stared at the book. “I’ve been granted protection by my father but I don’t think it will be enough should the pages of this book come true.” 

As typical of their serious encounters, Dante was greatly torn between pleasure over Lotus’ gracing his presence and loathing the news she’d likely had for him. His finger rounded the rim of his glass for a while, enjoying the sweet sound it made as he watched her and shook his head. “I’d imagine you have quite the followers yourself, cher?, he jested, knowing that she was by far no means innocent in that regard. He however wasn’t the sort to judge- in fact it was likely because of that they were able to have so much fun.

“Of course”, Dante simply replied as he drank. Colden was really a pain, but he wasn’t sure why there would be concern for worry. Their father had his right hand demoness with the boy and the rest of their siblings should have been watching him from afar. He should have been one of them, but he had a rather special request set forth for him. He watched Lotus settle down beside him leaned onto the bar. “Well, that is unfortunate”, he sighed, letting his annoyance of Cyprus getting loose out. Immediately he thought of his brother as one of the first things that witch would seek out.

“No, she likely thought that Angela was dead, and if it took her this long to break out, then she wouldn’t seek out her family if the news of the goddess was found out on her behalf. My question is who would have done it?” His father certainly wouldn’t had been the culprit, so did one of her lackeys still exist? Perhaps the one that had sealed her there in the first place did it?

The book was met with a curious look from him as she explained the worth in their situation. He reached out and flipped it open, but the language was foreign to his eyes and he wasn’t able to decipher it. “I’ll take your word for it. Cyprus was never known for orchestrating things for small feats. There’s always a grander scheme with her, though Father had…enlightened me on some of this plan already.”

With a heavy sigh, his angelic face twisted a bit in disgusted, perhaps the first time the Rosenite would see such a thing from him. “The lines this cross, even I can’t excuse. Incest is one of the few things I can’t indulge in. As unreasonable as Colden is, I don’t know if he would either.” Unless he was somehow made to, and knowing Cyprus, she would find a way. “All I know is that she can’t be allowed to do it. The boy is in Abed with a trusted demon. The only ones that know of this are my father, myself and now you. But they won’t be there for very long; both of them have insisted on moving to the mainland to seek out followers.”   

Lotus nodded. “Well as it be. We all thought she would take vengeance on Adraejen, the one who sealed her.  Adraejen is Angela’s husband and a werebear who is very protective of little Rohan.” These were the chess pieces on the board and slowly but surely someone was making their way towards check mate. 

She nodded and frowned a bit. “The being she is trying to create isn’t really spoken of in common tongue. It’s known by legends only. I had to do some digging and it’s not good. Especially not for us with half-blood.” Her eyes flickered toward Dante. “I’ll tell you more if you want me to. If you want I could tell your father, I would love to meet him.” She chuckled at the thought. 

She watched his face twist and her’s responded the same way. “Incest is one of the few things I very much frown on. It’s not something I wish to happen to my siblings. He is a mama’s boy though… That worries me the most.” She knew that Colden wasn’t as dumb as everyone made him out to be but she had seen him bend to her mother before. 

“Agreed. I can’t let Kirika get in the middle of this and that means keeping Colden as far away from Mother as possible. If for some reason Mother gets her hands on Colden… I need a safe place for Kirika.” She looked at Dante. “Would you be interested? If we can keep Kirika away from her… We could get Colden back. It would be a plan just in case something goes wrong. Kirika is strong but she isn’t as strong as Mother will be if she gets her hands on Colden.”

Lotus reached her fingers out to him and pet his face. “If Colden goes to the mainland please be ever watchful on him. I know it kills you to watch the cretin but it’s for… I suppose we’ll call it the greater good.” She almost scoffed at it but she chuckled. “Should Colden get taken I’ll take Kirika to someplace we can watch her. I would still like to give a full translation of this book to your father though. If he heard it maybe he could put an end to this madness before it could get started.”

“If there is one thing your mother does right, it’s her ability to be unpredictable”, he said in between his wine sipping. Refilling the glass, the demon thought just how far would that mad woman would go to succeed. Making pacts with devils, sleeping with them, using her own children and discarding them when she was through with him. There was no doubt in his mind that Cyprus was more of a demon than a Rosenite, perhaps she was already in midst of transformation even before she was undone by her sister.

“Sounds dangerous, and that’s not something I would like to see”, he spoke, his voice was filled with a dead serious in contrast to his normally playful demeanor. Lotus knew as well as he did that it spelled out doom for more than just her family, it would undo a large portion of his own as well. He was unsure whether to bring her to his father or not, but with everything going on, he suppose that elder’s temper would be the least of their problems. “Normally he isn’t too keen on being sought out, but in this case I’m sure he would be making an exception.”

Between his brother’s delusional campaign and that of Cyprus’ latest venture, he was sure her court would soon descend into chaos. “You know of him better than I. If she does get her claws onto him, there is no telling what would happen.” He was not one for bloodshed, that right was more reserved for Steele, but in the witch’s case, he would like to see her end finally. “If I was you, I’d hide her as a precaution anyway. One can’t be too careful when it comes to dealing with demons.”

Dante willing cave into her touches like a feline, and though it wasn’t his absolute most favorite thing to do, he would keep a closer eye on the boy. If nothing else, there were plenty of people he hadn’t seen over in Parvpora. Quite a collection of dishes he had let to savored yet. “Fine. I will play brother’s keeper for a while longer. Hopefully after this, he will be able to function on his own and give up his ridiculous crusade.” Living in a world crafted by her mother would certainly prove to be no fun since he could only see most of the population dead, especially Lotus. Not to mention he would likely perish as well. He called for a bowl of cherries and received it a few moments later. Plucking one of them into his fingers, Dante place it between his teeth and yanked stem off before chewing. “I can arrange a meeting in a few days then. Father may be a little peeved, but you and the book here should be enough to quell him down.” His tone was casual as he took another cherry and flung the whole thing into his mouth. The fruit was devoured and with some movements of his tongue, he withdrew the now tied stem.  

She smiled at him and rubbed the side of his face more. “You do this and I’ll do whatever you want me to.” She leaned in and bit at his lips after he pulled the stem out. “You can arrange it but only after I have my fill of you. I am quite bored of this taking care of Colden.” No matter how serious it was she always found herself trying not to sink further into her sexual greed.

She managed to steal him away and take him upstairs. She was sure she could have made the whole tavern jealous of whatever awfully wonderful acts they were doing. When it was time for Dante to leave and go fetch word to his father she pouted. “See you soon.” she blew him a kiss. “Hopefully soon is tomorrow.” She teased him softly as she pulled him in for another kiss. She was sore all over her body. He had managed to leave marks from sucking on her skin and it made her a bit drunk on the lust they had together. Too much lust in one room could do that.

Lotus stuck around town. She ended up dodging a few close calls in Adeluna. If it wasn’t for a few clergy members of Angela’s she would have probably gotten killed quite a few times. She stuck to the shadows and made her way to the tavern again. They would have a private room for this meeting. Lotus was on her best behavior. She didn’t know whether or not Dante would be there. She didn’t know much of Colden’s father either. That in itself made her nervous. 

She stood by the window looking out. Night had fallen and that made her more nervous as ever. With all the assassins out looking to get their hands on the book, she had the room well guarded with wards. When she knew Dante and his father had arrived she opened the door. “I don’t mean to rush but if we could close the door.” Worried eyes went up to Dante for a moment. “I got some visitors from Mother the past few nights. The streets of Adeluna are not safe, at least not if you don’t know where to go.”  Her voice was soft as she came away from the door. The book was secured by her waist. She had a few cuts on her shoulders and arms but they looked to be healing slowly. Even now one could see the wounds visibly closing and trying to cover themselves up.

She was tired and the wards were partially to blame for that. Lotus wasn’t a fighter but in this turn of events… she had become her mother’s enemy. Apparently, she had found out the book was gone from the vault or at least that the vault had been opened. “My name is Lotus. I’m Colden’s older sister.” She was sure that Dante’s father knew who she was but manners were manners after all. Her eyes moved to his father for a moment just so she could study him a bit.

She wore her same old same. The black corset with a red cinch around it. Her long raven hair was about her side in wild curls. She had the beauty her mother had but it was only enhanced by her succubus blood. Those eyes she had were wild gold and red.

If he hadn’t any more control over himself, Dante would have purred like a kitten at her words. When it came to her, the reward was always worth the risk, even it it was his own father’s wrath. The two didn’t waste any more time at the bar and soon were off, heading upstairs to a vacant room and fulfilled whatever their hearts were set on. His lips once again gracing her smooth and supple skin all over before meeting with her lips, his back had several scratch marks as if he had been in a struggle with a bear or big feline and though he felt exhausted, he went to go tell his father the news. “You’ll see me regardless tomorrow, the question will be when you will see him.” Dante leaned back down to kiss her and pulled away to admire her form once more. “Parting is such sweet sorrow indeed.” With that he sneaked another kiss from her before getting dressed and leaving the building. While he would have been content on staying, business had to be done first and he knew how to reach his father.

When the news arrived to him, Xunatar wasn’t too thrilled with his involved with Lotus, but was aloof about it. Sooner or later that boy’s loins would have landed him into seeking out rosenites, and that was from personal experiences of the father himself. However, he was even less amused by learning of Cyprus’ escape and learning the possible details he had been left in the dark about over her scheme. He arranged with Dante on the time and the location was already picked out.

The time had finally arrived and Dante met with his father by the ports. Both of them were in hooded cloaks as they navigated to Lotus’ location back at the tavern. Dante could tell from his silence parent that he was more than annoyed over the course of actions, but didn’t call him out on it. Xunatar wasn’t the sort to be quiet unless he was truly angered, and the wrath from him meant that there was going to be a lot of deaths if his plans were affected. Reaching the tavern, he sought for her room and knocked twice before being let in and Xunatar followed swiftly. One look of her and he could tell that her mother had something to do with her injuries. “Sounds like she is closer than expected”, he spoke before lowering his hood down. “The woman works quick, I’d give her that.” He turned and gestured to his father, whose identity was still hidden. “My father…Xunatar, cher.”, he announced before the demon lord pulled his own hood away. Like Dante, he appeared to have elven facial features and the ears, but unlike his son, he was completely demon. In fact, he merely looked like a slightly older and taller version of Dante. “I’d never thought I’d see the day that I would come before another rosenite woman again, much less from the same court and from Cyprus’ womb.” His eyes trailed along her and then to Dante. Like father, like son it seemed.

“Your mother…has become a nuisance to me these days. Had I truly known her intentions and how far she would take things, I would have avoided her at all cost. But it can’t be helped and now we have a common enemy it seems.” Pacing around, Xunatar thought about what he wanted to do to Cyprus if he were to get his hands around her neck. She wasn’t a fool and knew that if anything happened to Colden, then she would deal with him. “Your brother”, he spoke, addressing both people in the room, “Can not be allowed to leave with that woman. I do not know complete what she schemes, but perhaps you can fill me in on this, Lotus.” His eyes shot out towards the book he was hearing so much about.  

Dante could feel the razor edged tone in his father’s voice, knowing that the witch had succeed in doing what was a rather difficult task- pissing off the demon lord. “Colden will be watched under your brother’s care, Dante. I suggest you keep an eye on your sister as well, girl. If Cyprus or anyone in her flock is foolish enough to try and stop you, I will kill them myself.”

Lotus shook her head. “Just minions. Shells really. Angela’s clergy had been near by and I invoked her help. God knows what I owe my aunt for her precious time but I would rather be indebted to her. They had swords of Cadaver Poison. If that got in me without the right antidote… We wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.” It was a mixture of many things but Cadaver was a good name for it. As if on cue she took a diamond flask out and drank it. “I’m on detox for a few days to get the poison out of my system. It’s put me on edge, Love.” Her eyes darting about were a heavy sign of that but still, she persisted.

She bowed to his father. “Pleasure… Though I do wish it was under better circumstances than my abomination of a mother.” She offered the best smile she could. “I’m not as tricky or not fun as my mother. I can speak in truths. Plus murdering people isn’t in my book of fun.” At least her lips were still full of sass when it came to her mother. It wasn’t directed towards anyone but it was the poison acting up in her.

“Trust me, once hell starts to roll those loyal to her will wish the same thing.” She put her hands on the footboard of the bed for a moment as she steadied herself. The contents of the flash began to work their magic and her skin became a more sun-kissed. She stretched a bit and her fingers ran through her hair as if she was more energized. “I agree, if he leaves with her I need a place to stash Kirika. No harm will come to Colden as long as we have one of them.” She held up one finger.


Lotus nodded. “Kirika is at home in the Dark Manor of Arri’s courts. I have her under a watchful eye. She is young but not stupid. Rather resourceful but she was taught to be. The Darkness won’t give her up so willingly if someone were to try and take her. We at least have that going for us. The Darkness loves that girl.” It sent shivers up her spine.

“The book,” She unclasped it and presented it. “It’s in Arriese but I offered to translate it.” She flipped through the pages. “We know about there needing to be a strong demon blooded child and a strong angelic blooded child. We have that in Colden and Kirika. No matter how diluted Kirika’s blood is… I’ve seen her eyes and it is there. However, it’s the being that she is trying to summon. The Keeper of the End Times… at least that is the name it has been given for generations. It was a very real threat. Perhaps something that Lord Xunatar knows of? It took forces of great strength to seal it. It was a titan in that its blood was a rare combination of angel and demon. Though it lacked no conscious. I believe Mother tried to find it’s tomb but when she couldn’t she decided to create one herself. The thing about the titan was it didn’t kill its parents. It ate their souls.” At least Cyprus had been honest about not killing Colden.

“It’s the only way for it to really live after the moment it takes its first breath. That’s not all… It needs to keep doing that… From what I read half demons were its favorite target. We were believed to be dumb and naive. Mother…” She struggled with the words for a moment. “This was her end game. It was from the start. All those demons? It’s not just because she got power for herself. She was never a person to get something and not use all of it. If it wasn’t for the protection of my father, who is going to be very pissed off when he finds out about the poison, I probably would have died a while ago. I’m not old so I am not nearly as strong as she is nor the people she sends.”

She showed the disgust on her face. She flipped through the pages. “A lot of it describes the beast… whatever you want to call it. Kirika in detail had a lot more work put into her than Colden. Originally among the pages, she was going to have them around the same age. Because the angel blood she wanted was too strong in its pure form and he wanted nothing to do with her… she began to hunt down his ancenstors until one would. Which is why Kirika is so pure in our Rosenite bloodline. The Darkness loves her not just because she has that angelic quality without the burn but Mother hadn’t counted on the birthmark being on Kirika. The Black Court, in particular, has a thing about this birthmark. I’ve always heard about it. I remember my mother checking us over frantically. Even Colden. She would do it at least twice a week as if she were terrified of this person. The birthmark was a curse put on the Black Court. It would tell the Empress who the next heir was. That was because Mother was so toxic she burned her bridges to the spirits who controlled the court. They chose Kirika and Mother about had a fit as the Empress tore Kirika from her. She was more afraid of Kirika than to remember she needed her for Colden.”

Lotus took a break for a moment and flipped through the pages. “When we wanted to save Colden… When we found out… We held a meeting.” Her eyes darted to Dante. “You saw that meeting. We were all there. Now only a few of us are left. Eleven of my siblings died to keep Colden from becoming whatever she had planned. No bodies or bones were ever found of my siblings. She cannibalized them.” It came out in a disgusted voice as she found herself reading madness now.

Her eyes flickered up to the pool of water she had in a tub. “Eldora?” She tilted her head a bit. She came over to the tub and put her hands in it. Hands thrust their way out but they were dry as she pulled her sister out. “I told you not to come here? What’s wrong?”

Eldora left her sister’s side and peeked at Xunatar. She was odd with her bright blue eyes. “Eldora…” Lotus warned. Putting up a finger Eldora looked back at Lotus.

“Cold,” was the only thing that Eldora said.

Lotus tilted her head for a moment. “What’s cold? Come on… Now isn’t the time to clam up from whatever Mother did to you.”

Eldora’s fingertips thumped against her robes of gold and blue. “Colden is cold.” The words were a struggle and while in the vision state she appeared to have more control over her functions now she didn’t.

“Colden’s string is cold?” Lotus tried to decipher what she was trying to say. “What do you mean Colden’s string is cold?”

Eldora looked annoyed. “Gone. Cold. Colden not seen anymore.” The oracle waved her hands at Lotus.  Now she was shouting at Lotus and Lotus looked at Dante and Xunatar with an apologetic look as she tried to settle her sister down.

“Think harder. What did you see before the string went cold?” Lotus took Eldora by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes.

“Embrace.” It was the one dreaded thing that Lotus did not want to hear. 

“Fuck,” she reached for her hair and gently pulled at it. “When?” Eldora gave her a shrug. “It went cold too fast?” Eldora nodded and sat down on the bed. “And you’re sure?” There was a fiery look at Lotus now that could have killed if Lotus wasn’t careful. “Easy, I’m just trying to get the facts.” She held up her hands in defense before looking at Xunatar and Dante. “Colden’s future just went cold by I think… Mother coming to get him.” Eldora’s hair was a ton more a mess but she looked like she was trying to pull things out of the sky. “Are you trying to pull on fate strings? You know they aren’t real right?” Eldora put a finger to her lips and Lotus rolled her eyes.

“I would keep your son very close to Colden… Eldora’s visions always come to pass and this is the first time Colden’s string has gone cold. You can change the direction the string takes but you have to be very careful about it. Eldora what are the rules on it?” Eldora was quiet now and she was toying with things in the room around them. Letting out a frustrated sigh. “Do I need to ask Bryony?” Eldora snapped upright for a moment and looked at them.

“No rules. Time limited. One mistake. Poof. Spirits are fickle. They like it here.” Her speech was getting better now. It meant a vision was coming soon. “I see something…” Eldora tilted her head.