Chapter 15

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Ted Roscoe was wild eyed as he burst back into his mansion. The bodies were still there; the two men were glassy eyed from where they lay still, and their blood had congealed on the hardwood.

Seeing them made Roscoe suddenly furious again. He let out an animal scream and ran at the bodies, kicking them and smearing their blood all across the floor. He reached down and smashed one of them in the face. The two made no response of course; they flopped like rag dolls, their lifeless eyes seeing nothing.

How had they failed against that scrawny little girl? Roscoe ran a hand through his hair, smearing gooey blood on his forehead in the process. It had been the scariest thing Roscoe had seen, seeing Lilah twist out of their grip and end them so quickly. And then turning into a shark. A shark, for damn sakes! Was he finally going crazy, Roscoe thought wildly. Was this the final straw?

He straightened up and walked to the ruined window, absent - mindedly kicking a body again. The river wound its usual course, and Roscoe watched it in concentration, his mind still struggling to wrap its mind around what had happened. One minute she had been floating in the water, gaping at him, the suddenly she seemed to fold in on herself and morph into a shark. A shark! You don't see fricking sharks in rivers in Canada! That's just not how things work.

Roscoe growled in frustration. He knew who had the answers - Apollo Ambrosia. The girl had no doubt scurried back to him, but he wasn't sure if he still wanted her after what happened. His ego and sanity was in question, and both the girl and the Ambrosia boy would have to answer him.

As the decision set in his mind, the doorbell rang. Roscoe whipped around, lips bared. He wasn't expecting visitors. Who the hell was visiting him at a time like this?

Roscoe clambered over the bodies - slipping slightly in the blood - and walked down the hall to the door. He whipped the door open.

A petite mousy haired woman stood in the door. Roscoe blinked down at her in confusion. Who the hell was this woman? She was middle aged with a sweet face and brown eyes, her forehead crinkled in worry.

"I'm so sorry, but do you know the number to the taxi service? I'm visiting, and my rental car broke down -" She suddenly stopped, her eyes widening. "Oh my goodness, you're bleeding sir! Are you alright?"

Roscoe didn't respond. The woman eyes found the blood on his hands and all over his body, her eyes found the lack of wounds on him, and her mind quickly put it together. Roscoe didn't pause when he saw the horror and panic dawn on her face.

He grabbed her and pulled her inside, slamming a hand over her mouth as she began to scream. He dragged her away from the windows, his paranoid mind afraid of prying eyes even though the closest neighbor was ten minutes away.

The woman's eyes were wide with terror, and to Roscoe's intense fury he saw that she was beginning to cry. He gnashed his teeth at the woman. "Tell me, why do women always cry? Hmm? Why!!"

He slammed her into the wall, and her eyes rolled back into her head from the pain.

"This was the wrong house to go to, my dear." Roscoe growled. His hands moved down to her throat and squeezed. The woman choked, and her hands scrabbled uselessly against his hold on her. Roscoe watched in vague fascination as her face darkened and her eyeballs popped. Her mouth gaped open like a fish, and her eyes locked with his.

Roscoe smiled as her arms dropped, and she stilled. He gently gathered her up in his arms and carried her to the front room, where he laid her beside the bodies of the other two men. He looked down at her. Her face was already turning waxy.

He turned away. It had been a tiring day. Roscoe went to go fix himself a glass of whiskey, already thinking of his magnificent bed upstairs, and left the gruesome room behind him.

---

After about half an hour of looking, Tether finally found Astera. She was sitting in the tree he had left Lilah in; her blood had stained the wood a dark brown. Astera didn't look up as he walked up, but he knew she had heard him - nothing escaped the attention of those delicate ears.

"You know, I always knew you were strange," He leaned against the trunk where it was clean and peered up at her, "but I never took you to be as sadistic as this."

She graced him with a scathing look. "What on earth are you talking about, you fool?"

He grinned and patted the trunk. "Lilah almost died here. Are you regretting you saved her?"

Tether expected her to roll her eyes, or spit at him - which she did more often than necessary - but she did neither. To his utter surprise, she quickly looked away, chewing nervously on her lip.

"My God." He twisted so he could see her eyes. "Do you actually regret it?"

"Be gone you treacherous dog!" She snapped.

Tether climbed up beside her immediately. At first she fought him, but she eventually she gave in and curled against his chest. She hid her face from him, hating the fact that the man could read her so well.

"Tell me, my love." His voice was tender, and it broke her resolve.

"I'm exactly like him." Astera whispered.

"Like who?"

"My father!" The words burned in her mouth. "Tether I contemplated letting her die. I even thought about sucking her dry to speed up the process! You left me to take care of her, but I could have easily been her murderer."

"But you didn't." Tether remarked gently, stroking her spine.

She shivered at his touch. "Do you want to know what I was thinking when I saw her?"

Tether was silent. "What?"

"I thought to myself, good." Astera clenched her teeth in shame. "I thought, now she can spare my silly brother the pain of watching her die. I knew he loved her, and that he knew she would leave one day, but I wanted to spare him while his love was fresh."

"Astera." Tether sighed.

"I'm exactly like my father!" Her voice hitched. "I'm a monster, a leech! How can I be like this, when my twin is so infuriatingly good? Why does he get to be so much like our mother, and not I?"

"Shhh." Tether pressed his lips to her hair. "You're worrying yourself too much, gorgeous. You already solved your dilemma yourself."

"How?"

"You saved her." Tether said simply. "You knew it would ruin him, so you saved her. So what if she dies another day? It won't be by your hand; it will be time that takes her, when her hands are lined and her hair is silver."

"But I thought about killing her -"

"Who cares if you did? The fact is, you didn't. You had enough compassion to preserve the one thing that makes Apollo happy. That, my love, is your mother in you."

Astera was silent, and she burrowed even deeper into his embrace.

"He's still a part of me though." She whispered finally.

"There's nothing you can change about that. He's your father; but you also had an exquisite mother. Astera love, you can choose who you want yo be more like. Your brother made that choice a long time ago."

"Sometimes I think I love you." Astera said, raising her head to smile at him.

"That's good." Tether smiled back, his violet eyes soft. "Maybe you'll love me all the time one day, like I love you."

She shrugged. "That can be negotiated."

Tether laughed and kissed her softly, and they wasted the afternoon away in each others arms.

Comment, vote, fan! (:

I know there was no Apollo or Lilah in this chapter, but I really wanted to show a side of Tethet and Astera's romance (: Tell me if you liked it!

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