"No, no, no..." Colette mumbled as she was held tightly by McLean. She wasn't pleading at the fight that ensued between Adira and Edas at the lies that were spilt to end or for the woman not to be harmed because, truly, that wasn't much of a fight where she needed to worry for the queen and it was simply because the man barely being strong enough to stop a blow from the queen but what caused the girl to worry and tremendously was the sight of the dark figure nearing the commotion.
Isabella didn't transform nor did she look angry or annoyed but oddly calm. Her rapt, amber gaze was fixed to the figure who flung people out of her way like they were nothing but hollow bones and shells. They tumbled against the floor and the walls, their bodies bending and twisting in all forms as they then struggled to either regain consciousness or failed to have moved entirely.
Iradessa, the elder werewolf and Victor the preeminent presence among the infamous vampires tried to pry her off the bloodied Edas but Adira manipulated their bodies to stay still. And they were like nothing but statues bowing down to their majesty, screeching their disapproval.
Marabel, the elder among the elves also tried to step up but she caught on quickly that it was futile to get involved and decided to refrain from getting in between the livid deal devil and her target.
The beast-like Citadel guards, in the upheaval, ushered some of the onlookers, yelling at them to get to safety as even the giant pulled and heaped those who were visibly on Adira's side, tossing them like small toys around the room. He rooted up the chairs, but truly his attention was getting to Isabella and how he wanted to reciprocate that notion, causing harm was his intent but he was a smart man, and one who knew better than to cause his demise so soon trying to be silly apprehending such a powerful figure. Instead, he took his anger out on those in his way.
"Mclean, please don't let her hurt Adira," Colette pulled on the older man's shirt after her gaze never left the brooding mother who sauntered through the almost empty, yet disorderly room.
Hopeful, praying internally as tears welled up in her eyes, the brunette felt a doom settle in the pit of her stomach. She watched Isabella near Adira, the queen's back had been to her the whole time.
Least expected, the older devil moved quickly, putting herself in her majesty's line of view, blocking her from further blows to those who tried to pry Edas from her grasp.
Hyperventilating, Adira's fiery eyes locked onto her mother's deadpanned face. They glared at one another for several very long seconds, their unspoken yet obvious hate curling behind their glossy ambers like thick smoke.
"Prohibere,"
"Stop,"
"Manere extra viam meam!"
"Stay out of the way!"
"Stop this nonsense, Adira!" Isabella said in a low timbre, it was so low that some enunciation of words could be mistaken for a growl.
The woman's face finally contorted with her distaste and hatred of having to mitigate.
"Who are you to speak to me in such a manner? Do you think it's because you birth me into this world means you get the say, the audacity?" Adira's voice was harsh. She was in her vain, proudful headspace, high on that pentacle of power and vengeance to be mindful of her the words she uttered.
Truly, the woman's rage uncoiled as she descried her mother's baleful presence. And she remembered how Isabella embarrassed her in front of everyone merely minutes ago, she remembered how much she resented her for all the injuries in the past, she remembered all the heartache and the hostility and the need to forge a reaction inundated.
Who was she to intervene? What gave this wicked woman the right to speak to her at all? Questioned the true devil in the queen's thoughts. In her ear that fiery rage, that innate devil whispered its bitterness, wanting, encouraging her to cause havoc. It wanted her to make her mother relent, to realize once more that she was almost as powerful as she was. But before she could do anything to prove her predominance and strength, Adira felt a harsh palm across her face.
The smack was so loud, so forceful, it rang out in the entire room. The sting was like no other but her majesty was unmoving, standing like a powerful pillar in that spot.
Colette gasped, watching as Adira's eyes laid to the ground. Her grip on Edas' throat loosened, her nails left gaping holes in his skin and gradually she watched as the bleeding vampire slid to the ground. His hysterical wife and all so suddenly Petra yanked him away from the women who burned like the sun.
Petra realized finally just how angry and vengeful Adira was over the incident because to do something as impulsive as attack someone in the citadel with all the elders there meant she no longer gave a fuck and that meant they needed to stay out of her way.
"I need you to come with me," were McLean's words. The man already knew what was going to unfurl as it was customary for the two women to want to be violent with each other.
"Why are we leaving and why can't we get Adira?"
The man, with his blue eyes, fixed harshly to the girl he snapped.
"You need to listen to me miss!" his words were firm and so was his grip on Colette's arms, something she'd never experienced before and for a moment it scared her because she noticed the man's eyes as it had that crimson undertone.
"Adira will not listen, so I implore you, let me take you away from what will happen. I must keep you safe,"
Quickly, McLean dragged Colette out of the room and when he did, the man along with Isaac and Sam took the girl to safety. They tried to leave the building but Colette yanked herself away from them along the way and ran back inside but decided to stay a safe distance away watching the conflict unfurl.
In the room, were just a few elders who tried to get Adira and Isabella to see that there was no need to fight but before they could get through to any of the women, the revenant queen smacked her mother across the face. It was harsher, this blow because it incited the older devil to tumble back and as she did Adira crept closer, swinging another but before her palm connected, Isabella moved out of the way and so effortlessly. It was as if she danced and danced a beautiful routine where her body was water flowing so fluidly.
In seconds she slammed her daughter to the floor with a simple touch.
The impact of Adira hitting the ground caused a few things in the way to shift and rattle and once more Colette gasped. She inched closer, her nerves taunting her, encouraging her to step forward, it told her she was capable of stopping the women. And truly she was going to but a voice called out to her.
"Don't be foolish," said the man's voice and the girl's eyes averted to the source. Colette couldn't recognize him, but what seemed familiar was those blue eyes, that light brown hair, that affable exterior, that look.
Beside this unknown man with the familiar affability was with another, and this other man had greying hair, salt and pepper almost. His eyes were soft and brown and in them, Colette also realized that he looked like someone she knew, someone so familiar but even he was just a stranger.
"They're going to hurt each other, shouldn't we stop them?" Asked Colette making her way over to this man.
"And you think you're the one to do it Ms Rivers?"
The girl frowned. She had no idea how the man knew her name because she knew for certain she'd never seen him before nor was he in the room before the upheaval.
"How do you know me?" Asked the shaky voice and the man with the crystal blue eyes grinned.
"I did mention to you in the past that I had many personas, did I not?" He asked and for a second he shifted only his head and at the sight of the long locks, the feminine visage that slipped away just as fast as it came. The girl gasped.
The girl placed a hand on her chest.
"Rose?" She whispered.
Wolf bowed and it was a very sophisticated type of bow. "At your service,"
Once he finished his bow, he smiled sweetly at Colette.
"I told you I'd return, but excuse me for an instant miss," he replied.
Wolf's attention then travelled to the scuffle and he frowned. This confrontation was deadly as both women punched and choked each other out, breaking everything in their way.
Adira had the upper hand as she punched Isabella in the torso incessantly, causing the older devil to stumble back clenching her side. The woman coughed up a few drops of blood but it did not faze her.
With a sneer, the older woman shifted so quickly and the flash that filled the vicinity caused everyone left in the room to cover their eyes at the lambent glow of the bright colours that swirled around her.
Adira frowned as she saw the taller figure transform but this time Isabella stood before her, formidable, her horns longer, blacker. She was ready to kill and conjured in her equally formidable hand was the whip the revenant queen knew all too well.
The jagged knots and added items like the broken blades her mother had fixed onto the whip brought back memories, particularly why the woman ended up with those scars in the first place.
In the tangible silence, her majesty grunted as she readied herself as Isabella swung her whip. She wiped her lips, pushing the blood away, tasting sweat and the metallic twang of her blood.
Adira flexed her arms the way a pro-boxer would and each time she squeezed her fists, her muscles would bulge bigger and bigger.
"Can't we settle this another way ladies?" Asked Wolf and at his presence, Isabella was genuinely taken aback.
Her fiery gaze fixed onto him.
"Stay out of this William!" Tossed Adira but the man chuckled.
"Or else what, you'll apprehend me too, administer the beating I deserve your grace?"
"This witch disrespected me, she must be reprimanded!"
"I am the witch?" Asked Isabella and once more she swung her whip, causing it to crackle loudly and it sounded like thunder in the colossal room.
"I am the witch?" She reiterated. "Says the girl who needed to learn other forms of magic just to be half of what I am!" The older devil cackled an eerie laugh.
"You have a lot of gall half breed," she said to her daughter and even Wolf felt like there was no need for the woman to say that and those awful words she uttered, Adira frowned.
She stepped quickly over to Isabella and the woman spun her whip in the air, the heavy material sliced through the atmosphere as it circled ahead before flinging it to her daughter's face as she often aimed for. However, Adira was just as quick as her mother in the previous minutes. She stepped out of the way as the woman's favourite pain inflictor sailed over to her, but as the whip sailed by she snipped a piece of it off with a blade she conjured.
At the sight of the familiar dagger clenched within the queen's formidable hand, Isabella sneered. She remembered the feel of it against her skin, how it dragged and tore the flesh of her brows and lip on one of their final encounters. She remembered the blood and how long it took before her wounds healed. And at this memory that resurrected, she swung her whip again this time incessantly and of course, it connected, smacking Adira across her arms and back.
The jagged whip tore into her majesty's dark skin and at the sight of the blood that dropped Colette rushed forward but the older man she forgot was there gripped her tightly.
"That's not a fight for you," he said in a strange accent, his voice oddly comforting and at the utterance of such a thing for the second time, the brunette believed finally that she was supposed to stay put but it pained her heart seeing the queen unable to defend herself.
"I can't just stand here," she said, watching as Adira was unsuccessful in trying to touch her mother again. The woman was too fast, too seasoned in being a fighter to get struck again.
"I've known of Isabella for a while and I've never heard of her losing a fight," the man said absentmindedly.
"But that woman, her opponent," the man whispered to himself. He was enlightened of the existence of another devil similar to Isabella only a century ago but never had he expected to see this figure and the conniving woman in the same room together. What was also a hard pill to swallow was the uncanny resemblance between the two women.
Wolf did not mention that bit of information to him at all or he simply failed to remember thought the older warlock.
"Yield, Adira!" Yelled Isabella, smirking that wicked smirk of hers at the sight of her daughter bleeding against the floor.
The revenant queen hyperventilated as she stepped away. She tried to heal herself as best as possible but the wounds refused to.
"That's enough Isabella!" Yelled Wolf and this time the man stepped in between them, his brown wings flapped slowly. He readied himself just in case Isabella felt too happy swinging at him too.
"You would like to take the rest of it for her?"
"Is that a challenge?" Asked the other indomitable force and at his stone-like face, Isabella frowned, scoffing to herself. She lowered her whip but when she did Adira raced over and for a moment she had the upper hand, slicing her dagger against her mother's arms and torso so quickly. Before she could do any more damage Wolf intervened, subduing both women, rendering them incapable of moving.
Whatever he did cause Adira to scream in agony, shifting from her demon state. It didn't affect Isabella as it did her daughter but there was something else that did.
"Aren't you ashamed, mother and daughter fighting each other like animals?" Wolf's eyes were stone-cold.
"Especially in front of him," the other devil added and quickly Isabella's gaze followed his. Immediately the woman shifted, her chest expanding and contract rapidly at the warm eyes that were so afraid yet so intrigued.
"Aksel?" She questioned in disbelief after recognising the man.