A/N: This is the second to the last chapter, guys! Part 2, Visions, will come out soon. :)

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My mind was swirling, and my heart was pounding.

I couldn't breathe well, and my legs were ceasing to function properly, now that I was outside, far away from that castle that at first seemed so glorious to me.

In the end it was filled with pasts that unlocked my future. I couldn't stay there. I just couldn't.

I was freezing, with my teeth chattering. My hands were growing numb and turning into a hideous shade of blue. My hair came loose from its pins. I didn't know how long I ran; I had no idea how far I was from the castle...all I knew was that I was safe and away from all the madness. But my health wouldn't be safe if I stayed here even longer. I couldn't go back there. I just couldn't.

I didn't bring any jacket, so I was literally shaking. I brought my left foot forward, testing if I could still go far from here, but it was so numb I could barely feel it moving. Stubborn me, I ignored it and brought the other foot forward until I began to run once more. My hands were wrapped around me tightly, as if the coldness would go away and keep me warm.

Venise...

I halted.

What do you want now? I thought miserably, not stopping my pace.

Venise...

"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?" I yelled, shutting my eyes, tears trying to pass through the closed lids, making it frozen on my pale cheeks. "ALEXANDER, WHAT DO YOU WANT?" My voice was so high-pitched and I was sobbing. I still did not stop running, not minding where I was headed.

I wanted him to stop it. I wanted everything to go back to normal. I wanted my old life back; not some part royalty of some ancient paranormal community I couldn't even remember I was part of in the past. Normalcy was my goal now, but I could not put everything back together. Many things were just hanging in my way, not letting me reach that goal. I didn't want all of this.

You were once mine. Mine. I am not going to let you go this time.

I stopped in my tracks, my heart racing. It was as if everything stopped around me, and I was full of ire and anguish. I was completely miserable.

"Yours? YOURS?" I screeched, my body shaking in frustration. I didn't care about the coldness and the wind biting my skin anymore.
I was angry. "Who the hell do you think you are? I am not yours! LEAVE ME ALONE."

"Ah, but you are mine, sweet Venise."

I froze in an instant, my eyes round and bloodshot. Cold hands encircled each of my arms, while Alexander's breath neared the crook of my neck. His voice was warm and feathery while I was afraid, frightened, angry, and hurt.

"Are you not going to argue with me now?" He took his hands off my arms and walked around, stopping in front of me. My mouth hung open a quarter of an inch, my eyes looming over him. He looked different. He didn't look creepy anymore. He looked like a Van Allen.

He was. He was a Daeva, and part of an old and known family in the community; but he was also disowned by his own family in which God only knew why. His dark eyes were tinted with a hint of green and gold, his lashes thick and spiky. I continued assessing in total bewilderment. From his perfectly arched eyebrows, to his tantalising eyes; his long and straight patrician nose; his slightly thick immobile lips; his perfectly strong, squared jaw...Alexander was beautiful as the rest of his old family.

He was smiling profoundly, his eyes searching mine with happy silence. "Aren't you going to yell at me?" he asked in a teasing manner.

My mouth remained hanging slightly open, taking all of this in. What the hell was happening here?

He gave a little chuckle, his laugh coming out as an exhalation through his nose. "You were always a feisty little thing..." He stepped closer; I moved back. He grinned. "I can understand why you're so frightened of me. But I assure you, I won't" -- His voice broke over the word, and his face was twisted in pain -- "I won't hurt you. Venise," he said benignly, taking a step forward again. This time, I couldn't move back anymore, since I was against a tree. He raised an arm, and I whimpered, my head stiffly moving to one side, my chin on my left shoulder, eyes shutting.

I felt a warm hand touch my cheek, slowly melting my frozen tears away. And then the other cheek was touched by another hand. "I'm sorry."

I didn't speak. I couldn't speak. I was so confused by everything that was happening in this moment. Why was Alexander so nice? What was I to him?

"What do you want from me?" I said hoarsely. My eyes opened, my cheeks feeling warmer from his touch.

He shook his head gloomily. "It's simple," he replied. "I want you. I want you back, Venise."

I blinked up at him. "What do you mean?"

"I --"

"Stay the hell away from her."

Alexander's hands froze from rubbing away the tears from my cheeks, closed his eyes, sighed. I couldn't see the person who said those words with deadly calmness because the man standing in front of me was tall and broad-shouldered. But I didn't need to know who the guy who wanted Alexander to stay away from me was. I knew him too well not to have known.

"Roman." Alexander turned around slowly, trying to block my view. I didn't move from my place. I was too stunned about everything.

"It is a surprise to see you here, brother," he continued on. He started walking, leaving me behind a few inches away from him. I could see Roman a little clearly now, and what I saw in his face was nothing but silent rage.

"I am not your brother."

Alexander stopped, placing his hands in his dark pockets. "I believe I still am. Although the family did disown me, it still does not mean that I am not a blood-relation."

Roman's head was a bit low, but then he slowly tilted it up, his black brows knitting together, eyes narrowing. "I don't consider you as any of that shit."

I swallowed. I wasn't going to like this, I knew, but still, I had no choice but to stand there to watch and listen.

"I understand that," the elder brother said calmly. "I do not consider you as my brother, either. Not since the day you were born. I tried. I really did. But I couldn't. And when those things you did to me happened, I knew you didn't deserve living in this world as all of you think of me ever since, too.

"I can't forgive you. I cannot forgive you ever since you stole what was rightfully mine."

I straightened. What were those "things" Roman did to Alexander? What did he steal that was rightfully Alexander's? My head was aching from all of this, but I couldn't stop thinking through it.

Roman straightened as well, but he didn't lose his composure. His facial expression narrowed even more. "It's not my fault that what you wanted was what I got, Alexander. And it's not my fault that I did those things in the past. The first one was not a mistake, and the other..." He lifted his shoulders back, hands in his pockets in a casual manner, "It's what I couldn't help doing."

His brother lifted his chin up, tilting his head back, eyes closed. His hands linked together at the back of his head in a sign of frustration and ire. He was controlling himself. "You take that back, Roman," he said through gritted teeth.

I watched the two men standing in front of my view. Roman's eyes moved to look at me, and we both stared at each other. He was telling me something with his amber irises, but I couldn't grip it. He broke the gaze first, and stared at his brother with a straight face, his voice full of something I didn't know. "No."

This time Alexander lost his composure and ran straight for Roman's direction, his hands gripping tightly around his neck.

Roman merely looked at him, not saying anything at all. Alexander hit his back hard against a large pine tree.

"You take every word you said, back!" Alexander roared.

The younger one only shook his head, his face turning whiter by the second. "Never," he managed to break out. He made a twisted face and raised his fist in the air, hitting his elder brother's face hard. Alexander's nose bled, some part of it sprinkled on the snow below their footing. Roman gripped his neck and the other was holding on to a tree. Then he pushed himself forward and went for his brother, his fist connecting with Alexander's face once again. Alexander fought back, and I began to rip a cry from the back of my throat.

"Stop it!" I exclaimed, mortified. There was this feeling I didn't know for both men fighting in front of my very eyes, trying to kill each other. "Please!"

No one was listening to me.

Alexander raised his hand and gritted his teeth as he began to move Roman without touching him. Roman was in the air, his body being slammed to a tree again and again. I couldn't take this. I ran forward, but Alexander looked behind his shoulder, still not releasing his brother from the air, and raised his other hand, keeping me like a stone in place. I tried to move, but I was blocked, and I was beginning to cry and screech. "Do not go here," he said to me in a low, terrifying voice. "This is between me and him." He looked up above him, seeing Roman slammed like ice to a wall.

"No!" I yelled.

Roman began to yell and his face was contorted with fury. He put up both his arms and hands in front of him, pointing it at Alexander. He flexed his fingers and held it like a ball into large fists. He fought his brother's power, then he ran forward to Alexander and hit his forehead to the elder one's. He shut his eyes for a moment, while the other was gripping his forehead. Then he shook his head and punched his brother over and over, Alexander returning every strike. They were both bleeding, but their perfect faces didn't seem dislocated. I ignored that immediately, because I was still stuck in my place. Alexander's power kept me still, but I was trying to wriggle my way out. It was useless.

"Alexander, Roman!" I exclaimed.

"I don't regret everything because I know it wasn't my fault!" Roman boomed at his brother's face. He was on top of Alexander, his hands gripping the other guy's jacket, his hands marking blood stains on it.

"You're wrong," Alexander spat through clenched teeth. Roman's jaw was clipped, as did his. He made a noise at the back of his throat and swung his head to the side in a quick gesture, his head swinging the same time as his head did. But he coughed up blood, his eyes round and wide.

Roman did it again, this time his head moved the other way, his brother coughing up blood again.

"You stole who I loved," Roman hissed in his brother's bloody ear, his hands still gripping his jacket collar tight, his body lurching forward. "You stole her! Not me."

"No," Alexander coughed out, blood following along. "No, I did not." Then he began to laugh darkly.

I couldn't understand them. What was going on? Who were they talking about?

Roman pushed his brother against the hard, rocky, snowy ground one last time in a heavy slam, and got up. He looked at the man who laughed like a lunatic on the ground.

Roman moved toward me. He lifted his arm and wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, angry crimson eyes narrowed.

Alexander's power over me was gone. I sank down low on the cold ground. I sobbed so hard. My heart felt like it was torn and I felt so hurt by the scene, and by this weird feeling I was having for the two men who fought in front of me without mercy.

As Roman came to me, his voice softened, but it was hoarse, and then he began to touch my shoulders with a bloody hand. I sobbed even harder.

"Venise..." he started shakily, his voice full of something I couldn't fathom. Pain? Anger?

In the background, we could hear Alexander's laughter ringing in the air. I winced, as I heard the creepiness at the back of that psychotic laugh.

I didn't care of the smell of blood in the air, and I didn't care if my shoulder was stained with the mixed blood of Alexander and Roman.

I pressed my head onto Roman's hard chest, him gathering me into his strong arms. I was part mad at him, part not.

Like I said, I had this strange feeling toward them that I couldn't understand clearly. He rocked me like a baby, while I was moaning hard with my shoulders shaking. He was shushing me, and I felt his warm lips press on top of my head, my hair. "Don't worry too much," he tried to soothe, "I'll think of something to fix this. I promise."

But I couldn't even understand what it was they were fighting about. I didn't speak. I only cried harder. Alexander was still laughing hard, his body pressed to the ground.

"Venise," Roman said, pulling back, and looking into my eyes. His eyes were back to amber, looking squarely into mine. "I really..." He shut his eyes, took a deep breath, then opened them again. "I really care about you."

I stared at him, my eyes full of frozen tears, my heart full of remorse. Everything was so impossible right now; even I thought I was crazy. But here I was, with Roman Van Allen saying he cared about me, and Alexander guffawing like a mental person behind us.

"Venise!" shouted someone. And then other voiced followed.

I shuddered. "That's Gabriel and the others, looking for us," Roman explained. "I told them I'd go looking for you."

I nodded. "What about...Alexander?" I queried. His jaw tightened, arms suddenly holding me tight.

"Stop thinking about him."

"We can't leave him here!" I yelled at him. There was that strange feeling again.

"Yes, we can," he said, stubbornly.

"It's amusing, really," Alexander said a few feet away, suddenly growing serious, his face turned to us. He was slowly getting up.

The voices looking for me came near, but in my ears, they seemed so far away.

Alexander grinned, despite his bloody face when he smiled, his face looked grotesque. Roman's arms tightened around me. "You didn't get to tell Venise here that she's my wife. Has been for centuries."

I stiffened beneath Roman's touch, just as his arms tightened even more around me. "What's he talking about...?" I whispered shakily.

"Nothing," he said unhelpfully.

"It really is amusing!" Alexander exclaimed, laughing again. "I was about to tell her I am her husband, then you came along, ruining everything once again for me! For Venise and I!" He shook his head, shoulders shaking along. But then his voice suddenly turned low and dire. His eyes bore nothing but hatred. "I'm not surprised you haven't told her about you and everything that happened in the past."

"You're a bastard, Alexander," Roman said loudly for everyone to hear.

"My...husband?" I said dumbly, as if I hadn't heard Alexander say it. "Roman," I whispered, turning my head up to look at him. He looked down at me, still in his embrace. "What are you to me?"

Veins were showing on his neck, and it was ticking. "It's not for you to know now."

I didn't speak for a while, then: "I want to leave." I was exhausted. I wanted to be away from them. They wouldn't tell me the truth? I had to find out on my own. But not today. Today, I wanted to collapse.

He stood up, helping me up along the way. "Okay. I'll take you back home."

I touched his chest with my palm, shaking my head slowly. My voice was nothing but straight and blank. "I want to go without you."

"Venise --"

"Stop it!" I ranted at him.

"That's a shame, Roman," Alexander continued on, "because I always thought that you'd be the 'perfect' son. I thought you were always better at everything. Namely, being honest. Namely, doing things the right way." He chuckled. "What an asshole."

I closed my eyes and continued moving on. I could see Roman in my mind: his body straight, his head down. His back was turned away from me and from everyone. He was seething inside because of his brother, and because of my rejection of him. I kept on walking, my shoulders being bitten by the cold wind again.

"I'll see you again, Venise," Alexander said in a totally different voice. Much lighter, more gentle. I knew he was gone by the time I even reached ten yards, leaving Roman alone, facing a large tree looming over him.

"Venise!" Georgie exclaimed, running toward me. Her brothers and the Swintons were behind her, their face full of worry. I looked at Gabriel, his expression full of guilt and remorse. I tore my eyes blandly away from them, then looked at Georgie, who stood in front of me. "We thought we'd never find you!" She hugged me tightly.

I returned her hug, then I whispered in her ear.

"I want to be alone, please."

"But..."

I looked at her with empty eyes. "Please."

It was typical for her to blabber on about things, but it was amazing that she closed her mouth, trying not to say anything anymore. She saw something in my expression that made her stop. She understood that I really wanted to be alone and leave this damned place, collecting myself back to pieces.

"But don't you want to go back for a while and get warm, grab your things, and then I'll personally take you to wherever you want to go?" she tried to persuade.

It sounded tempting, but then I remembered that Matteo was there, who might be waiting for his lost daughter in the woods to come home to him. I didn't want that. I thought of Roman and the secrets he was keeping from me. I thought of Alexander, being attached to me in a marital way. "No," I said more firmly.

She bit her lip, then took off her thick, peach jacket. "Then take this, at least. I wouldn't want you to freeze to death."

"Thanks," I said quietly, taking the warm jacket from her, then wearing it. I felt warmer already. "I'll walk," I added, before she could even think of things again. I didn't need a ride, I wanted to just simply walk and find my way in this forest.

I turned around and marched off, just as I heard Axel calling my name loudly. Gabriel raised his arm to block Axel's chest; I heard Elizabeth and Matilda Swinton talking about me in worriment about my health and how insane I was for leaving with only wearing a dress and a jacket; I heard Alistair coming near Axel to talk to him and stop making him worry. I looked over my shoulder and saw Roman, who stared back at me in silence.

I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, then I walked on again, never looking back.