The Blood Rose Lady

The crying of Hestia Halls was music to her ears.

Being a half-heathen is indeed an advantage, especially to a billionaire like Maebh Mullin.

She watches as the demon she summoned breaks the teacher's bones and spilled her vibrant red blood into the autumn ground.

'How cheerful it is if I'm gonna do this to the Amalgam...' She thought as she picked up the Black Peruvian Rose and ran her fingers along its petals.

The night was dark, and terror flooded the park. But Maebh...she felt as if she was the Queen of the Night, the origin of the evil that plagued the city of Shamrock.

"Are you sure we can get away with this as smooth and as tidy as possible?"

She jerked her head to the man who spoke, to Ludwig who was careful to not step in the corpse and not leave any sort of traceable trail behind. "Nothing is impossible."

The dark entity then vanished with the click of her finger, as if it was just a mere pet that can be summoned in just a wave of a hand. Well, she possesses heathen blood anyway. And that entity was from Lamia herself, the mother of monsters and the goddess of nightmares.

She and Ludwig kissed, as if their lips had been thirsty for each other's waters.

It was Maebh who parted her lips first, making Ludwig frown at that gesture. She then inched closer to the lifeless Hestia and pulled out a small black-colored rose with silver linings along its edges. Maebh then dipped the flower into her pool of blood.

Delight sparkled in the eyes of Maebh and Ludwig as they watched the flower bloom further in a blink of an eye.

***

Leonardo Richards can't believe his wife was gone; as if she just dissipated on thin air.

He had ordered a wide search for his Rosette, but no Rosette came at his front door.

Several dawns have risen and many dusks have sunken. Yet, no Rosette Richards never appeared in his front door.

"Are you still looking for her, Leo?" His sister's voice was the one that drew his attention back to this family dinner-a dinner between a sister and a brother. Both are heathens.

Distress has filled him. He couldn't answer no, but he couldn't also say yes. He has loved Rosette very much despite her condition. He actually has a plan to let her be healed the morning after the night she disappeared using the Witches' Runes.

"Yes." That was a genuine answer from his genuine heart.

His sister put down her utensils and crossed her fingers on the table. "You should stop." Their eyes met unexpectedly. "Perhaps she's no longer alive. Or perhaps―"

"Perhaps what?!"

His sister's eyes then widened.

"Pardon me, Leonardo Richards. Perhaps you forget that you're talking to your sister and we're at the dining table."

"I'm sorry." A genuine lie from Leo.

Leo lowered his face upon apologizing to his sister, Rhella Richards. The latter always gain the upper hand when it comes to debates like this. How could she not when his sister is the reigning Heathen Queen-the Queen of Heathens, witches as to what the common people call them.

Rhella sneered at him. "Is that so, brother?"

A query and a challenge to him, to the grieving Leonardo Richards who just lost his wife. 'Left him' was a more accurate term.

"Can we just talk about the vampires and werewolves instead?"

Rhella raised her brows. "It's you who prompted me to talk about your Rosette."

He clenched his hands to a fist. "What of Nyra Ravenwood?" The topic has indeed averted to something else.

His sister rolled her eyes first before replying. "We have heard that she had held a new pet, found a new mortal to convert into a vampire." Rhella looked at Leo for a few seconds before adding. "They said that she's a sickly one very much ill."

Leonardo whipped his head towards her, eyes wide as the Pacific Ocean. "Do you think it's...her?"

She shrugged her shoulders at her brother's question. "Perhaps yes, perhaps not."

"THEN WE BETTER FIND THAT OUT!" Leonardo shrieked as he stood in a heartbeat.

Plates and glasses crashing down the floor and lights flickering at his sudden outburst of temper.

A powerful darkness slammed into him, knocking him down to their marble floor.

"Be careful of your words, young man. If you were not my brother, perhaps your head may be tumbling down on the floor by now."

It was a threat and a dare, and a warning.

Rhella's footsteps faded in less than a minute. He was the only one left in this dark, gloomy, and pitiful room.

Leo began to cry, then sob. Finally, he wept. He wept as loud and silent as he could.

His thundering heartbeat was the only thing that reminded him that he was still alive, that this was not an illusion of her sister, the Heathen Queen.

Deep inside him, he had long to see his Rosette even for one last time...to say and confess his undying love. Whether Nyra's new 'recruit' was Rosette or not, he will find that out. If it was her, then he would do anything to be back in her arms. If it was not her, then Leo has a midnight snack to pack as he looks for his Rosette.

Whether in remnants of bones or in breathing flesh, Leonardo Richards will find Rosette Richards.

Even if it means defying his own sister's orders.