Rot & Romance (Rewriting)

Chapter 22

"Go ahead," Isabella spat, returning to her dormant state. "Kill me. Kill me like you killed our family."

Ulysses placed a finger over Isabella's lips and kissed her forehead.

"What kind of father harms his own daughter?" He grinned and released her. "What brings my beloved back home?"

Isabella stood her ground before her father, staring at him with an infinite amount of contempt in her cold eyes.

"Emil. Where is he? He never returned to Strasbourg after coming back here to visit you. So where is he?"

The question caught Ulysses off guard.

"Why . . . why do you ask?"

"Just answer the question!" Isabella roared.

Ulysses grinned.

"You know the answer, don't you?"

"Ta gueule! You evil bastard!" Isabella sobbed. "How could you?"

"I caught Emil trying to steal the Demon's Spirit. It was a betrayal on his part. I do not pity the boy."

"He was your youngest son!" Isabella bellowed. "He was family!" she added in a breathless whisper.

"He was disloyal."

Isabella gasped as she fell to her knees.

"Emil was . . . all the family I had left," she squeaked. She looked up at him. "If you didn't have the only weapon capable of killing us, I'd kill you myself."

Seeing his only daughter on her knees, looking so pitiful and distraught, stirred a familiar kind of pain.

"The Demon's Spirit is the single, most powerful act of witchcraft in the world, Isabella," he said softly. "It was made to protect our family and in this family it shall remain. Anybody who threatens that will be killed. I warned you all, have I not?"

Isabella shook her head.

"Mother's elixir changed you."

"What do you mean?"

Isabella quickly climbed to her feet.

"You used to be a good man. A good father. But it's clear he died the night he drank the Demon's Spirit. All that's left is you. A monster in every sense of the word."

"The boy forced my hand, girl!" Ulysses growled.

"All Emil wanted was to make the love of his life truly immortal, just like us. He'd told me he begged you many times for just a sip of the elixir and you denied him each time. Emil risked his life for love, because that's the kind of person . . . the kind of brother he was."

"I forgave Emil the first time he did this," Ulysses said defiantly. "I warned him just like I warned all of my children what would happen--"

"I get it now," Isabella whispered. "How could I not have seen it before?"

"What are you on about?"

"I've always wondered why you were so livid the night Benjamin Crawford ran away from home. Enough to drive you mad with murderous rage. I thought it was because he wasn't your puppet. I remember how you tried to make him a monster. To make him like you. But he remained true to himself. I thought you couldn't stand that he got away from you. I thought that when he escaped your influence, your pride had been severed. But the true reason you were angry is something else entirely, isn't it?"